Spider-Man 2 beats the rest of October in sales | Circana October 2023

venturebeat.com:

After one of the most release-heavy months of the year (or possibly of any year), Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 came out on the top of the sales charts in the U.S. according to industry-tracking firm Circana. Not only did Insomniac’s new title top the month’s best-seller chart (and was one of nine new releases to make it onto the list), it also made it to fourth place in the year-to-date bestseller chart. Video game hardware sales plummeted year-over-year, though, and video game sales overall dipped by 5%.

“Spending on video game content in October fell 4% when compared to a year ago, to $3.6 billion.” said Mat Piscatella, Circana’s executive producer for games reports. “Growth in physical console software and mobile spending was offset by declines in other areas, particularly digital premium downloads driven by the release date shift of Call of Duty.”

Hardware sales in general have already been slightly in decline for the last few months, though 23% is a large percentage even by comparison. That’s not to say 2023 so far is a disappointment, as hardware sales are still up 6% for the year-to-date compared with 2022. However, this brings the growth percentage of all sales to 2%.

Piscatella notes, “All current generation consoles experienced a double-digit percentage decline in dollar sales when compared to a year ago. PlayStation 5 was the best-selling hardware platform in both unit and dollar sales during October 2023. Xbox Series ranked 2nd in dollar sales, while Switch was #2 in units.” He added that the year’s overall 3% growth forecast may be at risk and could come down to Call of Duty’s end-of-year sales.

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