NPD November 2021

S

Silent_Buddha

Legend
November 2021 NPD: Elusive new-gen consoles drag down industry sales | VentureBeat

I only looked because I was curious how well Forza Horizon 5 sold.

Video game hardware sales was down 38% compared to Nov. 2020. Hardware revenue fell to its lowest level (883 million USD) since Nov. 2016 (759 million USD). Basically shortages from suppliers of components means less consoles are being made and sold.
  1. NEW Call of Duty: Vanguard Activision Blizzard (Corp)
  2. NEW Battlefield 2042 Electronic Arts
  3. NEW Pokemon: Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl* Nintendo
  4. NEW Forza Horizon 5 Microsoft (Corp)
  5. 4 Madden NFL 22 Electronic Arts
  6. 8 Mario Party Superstars* Nintendo
  7. 7 Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Square Enix Inc (Corp)
  8. 6 FIFA 22 Electronic Arts
  9. 1 Far Cry 6 Ubisoft
  10. 10 NBA 2K22* Take 2 Interactive (Corp)
  11. NEW Just Dance 2022 Ubisoft
  12. 11 Mario Kart 8* Nintendo
  13. 17 Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales Sony (Corp)
  14. 15 Animal Crossing: New Horizons* Nintendo
  15. 2 Back 4 Blood Warner Bros. Interactive
  16. NEW Shin Megami Tensei V Atlus
  17. 16 Minecraft Multiple Video Game Manufacturers
  18. 20 The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild* Nintendo
  19. 14 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate* Nintendo
  20. 13 Ghost of Tsushima Sony (Corp)
And, congrats to Playground Games. Despite being a single SKU title and despite being on Game Pass, it still came in 4th in NA. It's also recorded record high unit sales for the Forza IP (both FH and FM) selling better than any other title in the series at launch.

Very respectable considering the behemoths that are in the 1-3 positions. I suspect that sales for BF 2042 are going to fall off hard in the next month or two after the disaster of a launch that it had.

Also, I guess this was a down year for Nintendo, they only had 6 titles in the top 20. :p However, congratulations to Sony for having 2x 1+ year old titles in the top 20. :)

Also, huge congrats to Atlus for getting Shin Megami Tensei V into the top 20 despite it being a single SKU title on NSW.

Top 10 for 2021
  1. 1 Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War Activision Blizzard (Corp)
  2. NEW Call of Duty: Vanguard Activision Blizzard (Corp)
  3. 2 Madden NFL 22 Electronic Arts
  4. 3 MLB: The Show 21^ Sony (Corp)
  5. 4 Resident Evil: Village Capcom USA
  6. NEW Battlefield 2042 Electronic Arts
  7. 5 Super Mario 3D World* Nintendo
  8. NEW Pokemon: Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl* Nintendo
  9. 6 Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales Sony (Corp)
  10. 8 Far Cry 6 Ubisoft
Whoa, COD: Vanguard didn't take the top spot from COD: BO: CW

Regards,
SB
 
I'm confused how Forza sold at all. Who is buying this game? Do that many people really not have gamepass? I guess if I did 99% of my gaming on a PS and only got an Xbox for exclusives (and didn't do PC gaming), I might just buy Forza and Halo - but I think that would be a very small demographic. Even if I wanted to just play Forza or Halo or whatever, I think I'd probably just buy gamepass for a few months rather than purchase the game.
 
https://www.businessinsider.com/why-is-xbox-beating-playstation-5-this-holiday-2021-12?r=US&IR=T

The $300 Xbox Series S console just outsold Sony's wildly popular PlayStation 5 during the critical holiday sales month of November.

There's a good reason for that: You still can't find a PlayStation 5 to buy at retail.

Demand for Sony's PS5 certainly hasn't slowed down, but it remains in low enough supply that it's nearly impossible to buy more than a full year after it first launched.

"It's all about stock," NPD Group video game analyst Mat Piscatella said. "The console with the most units in market will lead the charts.t
Click to expand...

If the S alone outsold the ps5 then its a really good month for Microsoft. Now the question is how well is the x doing
 
So, taking an opportunity to make note of something I just noticed. Minecraft is still charting and GTA V isn't. :p At this point Minecraft at 2.5 billion USD is turning out to have been a relative bargain of a purchase for MS, especially if you throw in merchandising and mind-share among young gamers.

RancidLunchmeat said:
I'm confused how Forza sold at all. Who is buying this game? Do that many people really not have gamepass? I guess if I did 99% of my gaming on a PS and only got an Xbox for exclusives (and didn't do PC gaming), I might just buy Forza and Halo - but I think that would be a very small demographic. Even if I wanted to just play Forza or Halo or whatever, I think I'd probably just buy gamepass for a few months rather than purchase the game.
Click to expand...

If I were to speculate as I'm now doing...

I'd say that Game Pass subscribers who normally would never even think of playing a racing game tried it on Game Pass (kind of like me). Then they got hooked and told their friends (who also would likely never even think about buying a racing game) about how fun the game was which then prompted sales of the game to people who don't own Game Pass for whatever reason.

Considering that Game Pass subscribers are greater than 30 million now (30 million number leaked by Take-Two CEO in Sept., official number is 23 million back in April), there's likely a lot of people who played FH5 that never would have played the game if it wasn't on Game Pass. That leads to a lot of word of mouth if they had fun in the game.

It also doesn't hurt that MS sponsored a lot of FH5 streamers on Twitch. Which doesn't necessarily mean much, but many sponsored streamers got hooked onto the game and then continued streaming it after their sponsorship ended. And that means a lot because Twitch viewers can tell when the people they follow genuinely enjoy a game versus just playing a game because of a sponsorship.

Regards,
SB
 
AlphaWolf said:
Like your quote says, How many did they make?

Did MS up S production vs X for planned black friday or is this just surplus moving out? Without shipping numbers it's hard to know what goes on behind the scenes.
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THe series s continues to sell through at retail. Retailers were sold out just a month ago in the states. I guess we wont know npd numbers leak or something.
 
Gamepass was not at 30 million in september
https://gamingbolt.com/xbox-game-pass-subscriber-has-not-hit-30-million-subscribers-rumor
The last official number is 18 million back in jan, So no doubt its grown since then but how much we dont know, Though if we havent heard anything by say march next year, its prolly not good, just like with xbox sales, they used to report the numbers until it didnt start to sell well and then nada.

I will note halo infinite was #4 first week in the UK and dropped to #20 in its 2nd week,
On the same week halo was #20, Spider-Man: Miles Morales was @ #4 (this is over a year after its release)

Obviously this is due to gamepass, spiderman would of earnt 100s of millions, something sony would have to give up if they came out with their own version of GP, would subs cover that shortfall? I very much doubt it.
I will be very curious to see MS gaming divisions revenue next quarter, of course with a couple of their biggest titles released and the massive influx of GP subs it should see large growth, but will it? We will find out end of January (unless they start shifting around the divisions)
 
zed said:
Gamepass was not at 30 million in september
https://gamingbolt.com/xbox-game-pass-subscriber-has-not-hit-30-million-subscribers-rumor
The last official number is 18 million back in jan, So no doubt its grown since then but how much we dont know, Though if we havent heard anything by say march next year, its prolly not good, just like with xbox sales, they used to report the numbers until it didnt start to sell well and then nada.

I will note halo infinite was #4 first week in the UK and dropped to #20 in its 2nd week,
On the same week halo was #20, Spider-Man: Miles Morales was @ #4 (this is over a year after its release)

Obviously this is due to gamepass, spiderman would of earnt 100s of millions, something sony would have to give up if they came out with their own version of GP, would subs cover that shortfall? I very much doubt it.
I will be very curious to see MS gaming divisions revenue next quarter, of course with a couple of their biggest titles released and the massive influx of GP subs it should see large growth, but will it? We will find out end of January (unless they start shifting around the divisions)
Click to expand...

Not that UK charts necessarily belongs in an NPD thread, but does the UK charts track DLC purchases? I ask because Halo: Infinite is distributed a little strangely.

Halo: Infinite base game is FREE.
Halo: Infinite Campaign DLC is 60 USD.

Halo Infinite on Steam (steampowered.com)

Physical SKU = Base game + Campaign DLC.

If their system is only setup to track sales of the base game then it won't be tracking any digital sales of the Halo: Infinite DLC since the base game is free, much like say Fortnite (and hence why Fortnite doesn't chart on sales charts).

The Halo: Infinite DLC is still #3 for Steam bestsellers despite it being on Game Pass. It's been a bestseller on Steam since the DLC was released.

Regards,
SB
 
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If you’re going to pay the extra $10 for PS5 games, makes sense to make it physical to recoup it on selling it used. It’s certainly makes more sense than buying digital.
 
iceberg187 said:
Microsoft has been the most successful towards conditioning their audience towards digital purchases, not to mention, the Series S is all digital and the UK market doesn't count digital.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1460007156862930949

People thinking in old paradigms needs to understand the current marketplace. I'm the dinosaur that continues to buy physical.
Click to expand...

Even when digital is counted, DLC is never counted WRT game sales. And that makes sense since those are counting game sales and not DLC.

This makes me wonder whether any sales tracking organization (like NPD) will count the sales of the Halo: Infinite campaign DLC. Basically, will they make an exception just this once? If not, then even NPD might only count physical sales of that title. If they don't then there's a good chance that Halo: Infinite might not chart in the NPD top 20.

It'll be interesting if the Dec. 2021 NPD will contain any comments regarding Halo: Infinite.

Regards,
SB
 
iceberg187 said:
Microsoft has been the most successful towards conditioning their audience towards digital purchases, not to mention, the Series S is all digital and the UK market doesn't count digital.
Click to expand...
Not true, eg
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...duty-dominate-november-2021-uk-monthly-charts

Looking at the GSD game charts (physical + digital sales), 4.6 million games were sold during November 2021 in the UK, which is actually up 5% over the same month in 2020.
Digital downloads accounted for just over 2 million of that figure, which is a drop of 2.5% compared with the same period the year before. 2.6 million games were sold via physical retail, which is a rise of 12% over November 2020.
New at No.8 is Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy Definitive Edition. The game's sales are 100% digital, with physical versions not arriving until December.
Click to expand...
 
iceberg187 said:
Microsoft has been the most successful towards conditioning their audience towards digital purchases, not to mention, the Series S is all digital and the UK market doesn't count digital.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1460007156862930949

People thinking in old paradigms needs to understand the current marketplace. I'm the dinosaur that continues to buy physical.
Click to expand...

day before christmas eve the house next to my friends went on fire. The fire spread to the side of his house and with the fire department hosing everything down his house is going to get knocked down but more importantly all his games , blurays/dvd movies , and statues.

God only knows how much money in games and stuff he lost.
 
zed said:
The above chart I linked to is digital & physical
Click to expand...

Well it includes "some" digital sales. For example, no digital sales data for any title on NSW. No PC sales data for COD, GTA and who knows what other ones might not include PC sales data. Hell, they weren't even going to note that GTA didn't include PC sales data until they broke down the platform splits for the title.

Regards,
SB
 
Silent_Buddha said:
I'd say that Game Pass subscribers who normally would never even think of playing a racing game tried it on Game Pass (kind of like me). Then they got hooked and told their friends (who also would likely never even think about buying a racing game) about how fun the game was which then prompted sales of the game to people who don't own Game Pass for whatever reason.
Click to expand...

I don't understand why those people without Game Pass are going to spend $60 to buy a racing game they don't normally have interest in, rather than $16 to buy a month of Game Pass to see if they have interest in it or not?

It also doesn't hurt that MS sponsored a lot of FH5 streamers on Twitch. Which doesn't necessarily mean much, but many sponsored streamers got hooked onto the game and then continued streaming it after their sponsorship ended. And that means a lot because Twitch viewers can tell when the people they follow genuinely enjoy a game versus just playing a game because of a sponsorship.

Regards,
SB
Click to expand...

Also don't understand why Twitch streamers wouldn't have a Game Pass membership subscription as a business expense, regardless of FH5 or anything else. I would think having the MS and Sony subscriptions would be as much of a cost of doing business as electricity or internet if I were a twitch streamer?
 
RancidLunchmeat said:
I don't understand why those people without Game Pass are going to spend $60 to buy a racing game they don't normally have interest in, rather than $16 to buy a month of Game Pass to see if they have interest in it or not?

Also don't understand why Twitch streamers wouldn't have a Game Pass membership subscription as a business expense, regardless of FH5 or anything else. I would think having the MS and Sony subscriptions would be as much of a cost of doing business as electricity or internet if I were a twitch streamer?
Click to expand...

It basically comes down to three things, the last one only applies to streamers.
  • Some people want to own the games they enjoy.
  • Some people do not like the MS Store and will avoid using it if it's at all possible to avoid using it.
  • Streamers that get sponsored by MS have the option of getting either a Steam key or MS Store key.
    • MS does this because they do not wish to alienate any Streamer or their audience just to push their storefront.
    • People playing their games is more important to MS than attempting to force people to use the MS Store.
You can see why they do it that way if you watched any Twitch Streams from back when they weren't releasing their own exclusives on Steam. Oh man, MS got a lot of bad word of mouth back then for the state of their storefront.

Regards,
SB
 
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