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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

State of the market

Projected October 2024 total U.S. spending on video game hardware, content and accessories grew 10% when compared to a year ago, to $4.7 billion. Year-to-date spending is now 1% above a year ago, at $45.4 billion.

Video game content spending increased by 12% versus a year ago, reaching $4.2 billion. Console content was the biggest contributor to the overall gain, with a spending increase of 27% when compared to a year ago, fueled by console digital full game sales. Non-mobile video game subscription spending increased by 16% when compared to a year ago. The release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 as part of Xbox Game Pass was the primary growth driver.

Hardware

Video game hardware spending dropped 23% in October when compared to a year ago. Switch dollar sales fell 38% year-on-year during October, while PS5 declined by 20% and Xbox Series showed an 18% decrease.

PlayStation 5 was once again the best-selling hardware platform in both unit and dollar sales for the month, with Xbox Series ranking 2nd across both measures.

604k units of new video game hardware sold in October 2024 across Arcade, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Plug-N-Play, and Xbox Series platforms. This is down from the 759k units sold a year ago.

Software

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was October’s best-selling video game, debuting as the #3 best-selling game of 2024 YTD. Over each title's first two weeks in market, full game dollar sales of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 were 23% higher than Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III a year ago. PlayStation platforms accounted for 82% of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 total console full game dollar sales volume during the October tracking period.

After just one month in market, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero became the best-selling Dragon Ball game in U.S. lifetime dollar sales and ranked 3rd among all Bandai Namco Entertainment published titles in history, trailing only Elden Ring and Dark Souls III.

Silent Hill 2 (2024) debuted as the #2 best-selling Silent Hill game in lifetime dollar sales, trailing only the original Silent Hill 2. It ranked 3rd among all video games in October full game dollar sales and at #28 for the 2024 year-to-date period.

Mobile

Sensor Tower: Top 10 mobile games by U.S. consumer spend in October and rank change vs September: MONOPOLY GO!, Royal Match, Roblox, Candy Crush Saga, Last War: Survival, Whiteout Survival, Township, Pokémon GO (+2), Coin Master, and Brawl Stars (-2).

“There was only one major rank change this month, with Pokémon GO (+14%) and Brawl Stars (-19%) swapping places. Brawl Stars is coming off historic highs driven by a groundbreaking collaboration with SpongeBob SquarePants,” said Samuel Aune of Sensor Tower.

“There is a bigger story happening in the background, however: MONOPOLY GO! saw a 20% decline in US revenue this past month. The game earned 50% more revenue in May and June 2024 than it did in October 2024,” said Aune. “Another huge story is the recent release of Pokémon TCG Pocket, which is looking like the launch of the year. The game has already passed the $30M worldwide in-app spend milestone a week after launch, with 22% of that coming from the US (44% coming from Japan)," Aune continued.

Accessories

Consumer spending on Accessories increased 15% in October when compared to a year ago, to $187 million. The PlayStation Portal was October’s best-selling accessory in dollar sales.

Software Charts

Year to Date

Monthly Active User Engagement

Rankings
Units: PS5 > XBS > NSW
Revenue: PS5 > XBS > NSW

InstallBase estimates October 2024

PS5: 290k
XBS: 165K
NSW: 130k

October 2023 for comparison

PS5: 360k
NSW: 210k
XBS: 200K

Thanks Mat Piscatella and Welfare from IB!

 

[Elios83]

PlayStation platforms accounted for 82% of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 total console full game dollar sales volume during the October tracking period.

Gamepass increases sales
They destroyed their Xbox revenues stream as expected and they haven't touted new big milestones for Gamepass either.

 

[adamsapple]

CoD 3rd best selling YtD in just one month.

Metaphor in the top 5.

Undisputed at 4.

 

[Flabagast]

Silent Hill 2 crushing Dragon Age in charts was not something I expected

 

[LordOcidax]

604K (Hardware) is kinda low for a whole month…

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

82% dollar sales from COD came from Playstation. Wow.

Xbox making most of their money as a 3rd party publisher on Sony consoles.

Imagine saying this 20 years ago, lmao

82% is honestly crazy. The game is also on PC for fucks sake.

 

[Fake]

Good for Dragon Ball.

 

[Synastry]

No GTA 5 in the top 20 I guess everyone in the US has finally bought it.

 

[GHG]

82% isn't bad for blockbuster.

 

[Codes 208]

Well deserved on Sparking Zero. Currently my goty

 

[LordCBH]

Dragon Age is too high on that list. Can’t believe people bought that shit.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

Gamepass increases sales
They destroyed their Xbox revenues stream as expected and they haven't touted new big milestones for Gamepass either.

We have no idea about this. Only when they reveal their quarter results. I'm sure Gamepass had a considerable jump tbh. But is that enough to forget about their own game sales?
I am 99% confident this quarter is THE ultimate test for Gamepass. If COD isn't enough to give them the results they want, nothing will.

They will probably monitor if people are staying withing Gamepass or just cancel their subscriptions after 1, 2 or 3 months tbh.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

We have no idea about this. Only when they reveal their quarter results. I'm sure Gamepass had a considerable jump tbh. But is that enough to forget about their own game sales?
I am 99% confident this quarter is THE ultimate test for Gamepass. If COD isn't enough to give them the results they want, nothing will.

They will probably monitor if people are staying withing Gamepass or just cancel their subscriptions after 1, 2 or 3 months tbh.

I doubt GP made a significant jump from the last time they shared numbers.

Xbox is a dying platform, it's not going to gain much momentum if it didn't already. COD won't change much about it.

The novelty for GP wore off a long time ago.

 

[H-I-M]

I doubt GP made a significant jump from the last time they shared numbers.

Xbox is a dying platform, it's not going to gain much momentum if it didn't already. COD won't change much about it.

The novelty for GP wore off a long time ago.

And on top of that, their biggest game also didn't boost hardware sales, which means that it also didn't bring new potential gamepass players.

 

[Mr Moose]

I thought Activision was the publisher.

604K (Hardware) is kinda low for a whole month…

November will be bigger.

 

[Gideon]

Anyone knows if SotE sales are included?

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social)

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 to Game Pass did a few things in the US... it resulted in a subscription spending boost, shifted share of full game sales to PlayStation, did not appear to result in massive cannibalization of sales, and did not appear to provide a significant boost to Xbox Series hardware.

bsky.app

Well if COD day one on GamePass doesn't do it, nothing will.

 

[Mr Moose]

Anyone knows if SotE sales are included?

Full game only, I think. DLC counts as an add-on.

 

[GHG]

Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social)

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 to Game Pass did a few things in the US... it resulted in a subscription spending boost, shifted share of full game sales to PlayStation, did not appear to result in massive cannibalization of sales, and did not appear to provide a significant boost to Xbox Series hardware.

bsky.app

Well if COD day one on GamePass doesn't do it, nothing will.

Why are these guys all on bluesky all of a sudden? What's going on?

 

[Elios83]

We have no idea about this. Only when they reveal their quarter results. I'm sure Gamepass had a considerable jump tbh. But is that enough to forget about their own game sales?
I am 99% confident this quarter is THE ultimate test for Gamepass. If COD isn't enough to give them the results they want, nothing will.

They will probably monitor if people are staying withing Gamepass or just cancel their subscriptions after 1, 2 or 3 months tbh.

There is no big jump.
You could already tell by the lack of fanfare and announcements that are not PR fluff but we just had an indirect confirmation:

Video game content spending increased by 12% versus a year ago, reaching $4.2 billion. Console content was the biggest contributor to the overall gain, with a spending increase of 27% when compared to a year ago, fueled by console digital full game sales. Non-mobile video game subscription spending increased by 16% when compared to a year ago. The release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 as part of Xbox Game Pass was the primary growth driver.

16% increase in subscription spending for the month yoy driven by GP.
This is obviously just an increase in a single month spending, it's not an increase in their subscription base and even then given it's the launch month it's highly disappointing.

 

[Topher]

Why are these guys all on bluesky all of a sudden? What's going on?

Basically because Bluesky is a left leaning version of X and much more willing to censor what people post.

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

Why are these guys all on bluesky all of a sudden? What's going on?

It's not run by a retard.


Also way less ads (no ads I think) stuck between posts on your feed and no weird algorithm fuckery behind the scenes. It's like Twitter circa 2012. Which makes sense as it was forked from Twitter years ago.

 

[Ronin_7]

PlayStation is Call of Duty saviour

 

[adamsapple]

Why are these guys all on bluesky all of a sudden? What's going on?

 

[Horseganador]

82% of COD sales are on PS, GP must have grown a lot to compensate for such a debacle in sales for Xbox, that third SH2 seems to have worked quite well and PS5 is leading for another month.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Posting here more Piscatella screenshots for people who don't want to go to bsky

 

[GHG]

Basically because Bluesky is a left leaning version of X and much more willing to censor what people post.

Bunch of softies.

 

[Darsxx82]

"Non-mobile video game subscription spending increased by 16% when compared to a year ago. The release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 as part of Xbox Game Pass was the primary growth driver."
"Excluded Add-on spending"

-The Vault Upgrade ($30) has been top 1 on the Xbox Store for the entire month. The game is in the Top 3 and the Vault Upgrade (€100) is in the Top 5.

-Gamepass subscriptions have grown.

-Sales of the game (even with the effects of Gamepass on Xbox) are performing quite well.

It certainly hasn't been a disaster for MS but It remains to be seen if the new subscriptions + DLC upgrades vault have met MS' expectations to compensate.
The answer will be whether COD will be on Gamepass next year.

 

[Kacho]

Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social)

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 to Game Pass did a few things in the US... it resulted in a subscription spending boost, shifted share of full game sales to PlayStation, did not appear to result in massive cannibalization of sales, and did not appear to provide a significant boost to Xbox Series hardware.

bsky.app

Well if COD day one on GamePass doesn't do it, nothing will.

Can we admit Game Pase is a failed strategy now?

 

[twilo99]

Why are these guys all on bluesky all of a sudden? What's going on?

They are afraid of that Diablo player

 

[Topher]

"Non-mobile video game subscription spending increased by 16% when compared to a year ago. The release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 as part of Xbox Game Pass was the primary growth driver."
"Excluded Add-on spending"

-The Vault Upgrade ($30) has been top 1 on the Xbox Store for the entire month. The game is in the Top 3 and the Vault Upgrade (€100) is in the Top 5.

-Gamepass subscriptions have grown.

-Sales of the game (even with the effects of Gamepass on Xbox) are performing quite well.

It certainly hasn't been a disaster for MS. It remains to be seen if the new subscriptions + DLC upgrades have met MS' expectations. The answer will be whether COD will be on Gamepass next year.

That question very well may be answered with the Q2 financial earnings report come January.

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

Can we admit Game Pase is a failed strategy now?

Always has been.

 

[SlimySnake]

82% is madness. Gamepass completely cannibalized sales on Xbox and PC.

I wonder if the overall sales are up or down.

 

[twilo99]

That question very well may be answered with the Q2 financial earnings report come January.

It all depends on how much of a time buffer they’ve planned for this whole process

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

Can we admit Game Pase is a failed strategy now?

MS admited that as soon as their titles went for Playstation. What's happening this fall is them testing the waters and see if they have to give up on Gamepass or not.

 

[Topher]

It all depends on how much of a time buffer they’ve planned for this whole process

Perhaps, but stock holders are going to be eyeing the numbers pretty dang close regardless of any buffers.

 

[LordCBH]

Why are these guys all on bluesky all of a sudden? What's going on?

They’re all salty that Twitter stopped censoring people.

 

[Kacho]

MS admited that as soon as their titles went for Playstation. What's happening this fall is them testing the waters and see if they have to give up on Gamepass or not.

So what’s next if they give up on Game Pass? They aren’t nuking their ecosystem.

 

[Topher]

So what’s next if they give up on Game Pass? They aren’t nuking their ecosystem.

In that scenario, my guess is they would start transitioning it to be a streaming only service.

 

[onQ123]

Basically because Bluesky is a left leaning version of X and much more willing to censor what people post.

Everything isn't about politics though , I don't use either but most people on X was already there when it was Twitter & Bluesky being created by Jack who created Twitter just seems like the natural place that people would go if they didn't want their social platform taking over by Elon .

 

[Orbital2060]

Metaphor doing numbers in the US.

Helldivers charting #3 on steam and out of the top 10 on PlayStation - is it mainly played on PC by now?

 

[twilo99]

Perhaps, but stock holders are going to be eyeing the numbers pretty dang close regardless of any buffers.

True. The numbers will certainly have an impact, but it might not be immediate.

 

[Topher]

Everything isn't about politics though , I don't use either but most people on X was already there when it was Twitter & Bluesky being created by Jack who created Twitter just seems like the natural place that people would go if they didn't want their social platform taking over by Elon .

It is absolutely political, but not going to go down that rabbit hole.

 

[Darsxx82]

That question very well may be answered with the Q2 financial earnings report come January.

It may be, but I doubt that MS will show any decisions of that kind in the fiscal report.
I expect a more positive report on the overall sales/income of Game division, and an increase in income from Gamepass subscriptions YOY.

Then, internally, decisions will have to be made on whether another strategy may or may not lead to higher income. Going up 20% is good and you're going to sell it as something very positive, but not so much if you missed the opportunity to go up 35%.

 

[twilo99]

Helldivers charting #3 on steam and out of the top 10 on PlayStation - is it mainly played on PC by now?

I see Helldivers as Sony’s biggest achievement in the past decade or so because it’s extremely difficult to break into that market on PC and they did it without having to rely on Marvel’s IP , it’s actually 100% original work.

Bravo to the team responsible

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

Basically because Bluesky is a left leaning version of X and much more willing to censor what people post.

I don't care about politics when i'm on social media and that's literally why i left twitter. Most of my algorithm was crap for 1 or 2 years. I'm not even american and trump was everywhere. Elon as well. Comment sections are bot-infested and when they are not, it's unrelated comments everywhere. That wasn't the case just 2 years ago (or 3?)

Twitter is a mess for a while now (1 or 2 years) and it's not getting any better.

Bluesky is clean af. It's what Twitter was like 10 years ago.

 

[Topher]

I don't care about politics when i'm on social media and that's literally why i left twitter. Most of my algorithm was crap for 1 or 2 years. I'm not even american and trump was everywhere. Elon as well. Comment sections are bot-infested and when they are not, it's unrelated comments everywhere. That wasn't the case just 2 years ago (or 3?)

Twitter is a mess for a while now (1 or 2 years) and it's not getting any better.

Bluesky is clean af. It's what Twitter was like 10 years ago.

That's fair. I'm sure it is fine for anyone who doesn't engage in politics.

 

[DeepEnigma]

I don't care about politics when i'm on social media and that's literally why i left twitter. Most of my algorithm was crap for 1 or 2 years. I'm not even american and trump was everywhere. Elon as well. Comment sections are bot-infested and when they are not, it's unrelated comments everywhere. That wasn't the case just 2 years ago (or 3?)

Twitter is a mess for a while now (1 or 2 years) and it's not getting any better.

Bluesky is clean af. It's what Twitter was like 10 years ago.

You can select on X to only see feeds of those you follow and self curate that way.

 

[Agent_Nobody]

Dragon Age is too high on that list. Can’t believe people bought that shit.

It also released on the last day of the month, so it hit number 6 for the whole month despite only being available for a single day

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

You can select on X to only see feeds of those you follow and self curate that way.

But i don't wanna see only the pages i follow? That's the point. The algorithm is messed up for a while. This isn't even news. It's been a huge complain for the platform for years.