Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is the Best-Selling Game for October 2019 and the Year Overall in the U.S., NPD Results

October was a busy month for video games, with lots of major titles launching across various platforms. Throughout the month, we saw noteworthy releases like Destiny 2: Shadowkeep, Ghost Recon Breakpoint, Concrete Genie, The Outer Worlds, and of course, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Of all of them, however, only one can come out on top. Modern Warfare was the best-selling game of the month in the United States, leading the charge ahead of the other big releases. Each year, Call of Duty usually stomps out the competition in terms of sales, and the military juggernaut has kept that trend going as not only the best-selling game of October but of the year, as well.

Obsidian Entertainment’s new RPG The Outer Worlds also charted as October’s second best-selling game. This mirrors the sentiments of publisher Take-Two, in which the company stated the game was “outperforming…expectations handily.”

Madden NFL 20, NBA 2K20, and FIFA 20 each took the 4th, 5th, and 8th spots, respectively, proving that sports sims are still just as popular as ever. A few other notable entries were Ghost Recon Breakpoint taking the 6th spot and WWE 2K20 taking the 7th spot for the month. Breakpoint was apparently disappointing for Ubisoft in terms sales, while WWE 2K20 was poorly received, due to a plethora of meme-worthy glitches. Despite that, both games still sold appreciably enough to land on the NPD’s monthly charts.

NPD analyst Mat Piscatella compiled the sales data for the month into a Twitter thread, noting a number of trends and facts about one of the year’s biggest months for games. Switch leads the way in hardware sales. This is the 12th year in a row that Call of Duty has led sales for the month it released, leaving Call of Duty as the best selling franchise in the US overall. The PS4’s top 10 for the month had no exclusives on the list, and the Electric Purple DualShock 4 controller was the best selling accessory of the month, while the standard black DualShock 4 remains the top accessory for the year.

Here are the best-selling games in the U.S. for the month of October 2019. Keep in mind that these are stats for the United States only. All games include digital and physical sales besides Nintendo products, which are marked:

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
2. The Outer Worlds
3. Luigi’s Mansion 3*
4. Madden NFL 20
5. NBA 2K20
6. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint
7. WWE 2K20
8. FIFA 20
9. Borderlands 3
10. Ring Fit Adventure
11. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awaking*
12. Mario Kart 8*
13. Minecraft 
14. Grand Theft Auto V
15. Mortal Kombat 11
16. Overwatch
17. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
18. Code Vein
19. Red Dead Redemption II
20. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*

Note that games with an asterisk have limited tracking that may not fully reflect the data. They are placed by what sales tracking is available.