
The U.S. video game industry was flat last month, and it has Call of Duty season to thank for floating the boat.
According to The NPD Group, consumer spending on video game content, hardware, and accessories totaled $4.3 billion during October 2022, flat versus 2021 sales. The release of Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II offset declines in mobile content and video game hardware sales by fueling a boom in digital sales and subscriptions for both console and PC.
NPD’s Video Games industry Analyst, Mat Piscatella points out that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II marks the franchise’s 15th consecutive year of being the best-selling game in its release month.
Year-to-date spending on video games for the first 10 months of the year is at $42.7 billion, a 7% decline over last year.
The biggest factor of concern right now is that sales of video game hardware continue to slide despite double-digit sales growth for Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 consoles. Hardware sales dipped 10% in October.