In what some might consider a surprising result, Activision and Treyarch’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 took the top spot on November sales charts ahead of Fallout 4 .
November is one of the biggest months in video game sales, and this year’s offerings were among the best the industry had to offer. In fact, industry-tracking firm The NDP Group’s research revealed video games increased its share of the overall Thanksgiving and Black Friday sales compared to last year. Speaking of sales, although Bethesda’s Fallout 4 dominated headlines and was nearly unanimously on every Game of the Year ballot, it was Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 that ended up topping the sales charts.
While the news might come as a surprise to some, those who have been paying attention to sales projections for the last few months knew that Black Ops 3 was the most anticipated game of Fall 2015according to Nielsen insight group. While promises that the story of Black Ops 3 is “really screwed up”couldn’t have hurt interest in the game’s narrative, as with other Call of Duty titles, sales were primarily driven on the promise of its tight multiplayer experience. The fact Black Ops 3 was available on the Xbox 360 and PS3 while Fallout 4 was not also likely played a role in the former’s sales volume.
Of course, November’s sales charts revealed a lot more than just the predictable dominance of two AAA franchises. Star Wars: Battlefront finished in third, while Halo 5: Guardians and Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate finished closer to the bottom of the top 10. One game that was conspicuous in its absence was Rise of the Tomb Raider , which didn’t make the list despite making many others regarding the best games the Xbox One has to offerthis holiday season. Many blame the game’s timed exclusivity for the poor showing, as the November numbers obviously don’t include the sales the game will get on the PS4 and PC platform in 2016.
That being said, the only exclusive that did crack the list was an Xbox One game, as Halo 5: Guardians continued its strong sales into November. Despite the PS4 reclaiming its throne as the top-selling consolethis month, its pretty clear that Microsoft’s console isn’t too far behind and has more than enough in the way of exclusives, like Halo 5 , to compete.
That’s good news, since Microsoft’s Phil Spencer announced earlier today that there will likely be another Xbox console in the future, and healthy competition between the console manufacturers results in stronger game line-ups for fans to enjoy as well. For now, though, it appears exclusivity doesn’t necessarily help sales, as Black Ops 3 and Fallout 4 can attest to.
Source: Venture Beat