Video game analyst group Circana has released its October 2023 U.S. Video Game Market Highlights report and in it, the company reveals that Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 was the best-selling game of the month. The PlayStation 5 was the best-selling console of the month, too.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 taking the top slot last month isn’t surprising – it’s the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game ever and sold through 5 million copies in just 11 days.
Behind Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 on October 2023’s best-selling list is Super Mario Bros. Wonder, the latest Switch exclusive from Nintendo at-the-time, and Assassin’s Creed Mirage, the shorter throwback title from Ubisoft starring Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s Basim. Last month’s best-selling game, Starfield, the latest RPG from Bethesda, dropped to 14th place in October.
Other new releases in Circana’s October 2023 report include EA’s UFC 5, which debuted in 7th place last month, EA’s NHL 24 behind it in 8th place, and Sega’s Sonic Superstars in 9th place.
Top 10 Best-Selling Games October 2023
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
- Super Mario Bros. Wonder
- Assassin’s Creed Mirage
- Madden NFL 24
- EA Sports FC 24
- Mortal Kombat 1
- UFC 5
- NHL 24
- Sonic Superstars
- Hogwarts Legacy
Top 10 Best-Selling Games Year-to-Date 2023
- Hogwarts Legacy
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
- Madden NFL 24
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
- Diablo IV
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022)
- Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
- Mortal Kombat 1
- Starfield
- Resident Evil 4 (2023)
You can check out the full top 20 for October 2023 here and the full top 20 for the entire year here. It’s important to note that these lists and results do not include digital sales for Nintendo-published titles.
div>Circana executive director Mat Piscatella writes on Twitter that spending on video game content fell 4 percent in October compared to October 2022, to $3.6 billion. He adds that “growth in physical consoles 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.”
Roblox hit PlayStation platforms last month and ranked 4th across all titles on the PS5 in terms of monthly active users in the U.S. It was behind Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, Fortnite, and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.
The PS5 was the best-selling hardware platform in both unit sales and dollar sales for October 2023. The Xbox Series X/S came in second place for dollar sales while the Switch came in second for unit sales. Year-to-date hardware spending was 6 percent higher compared to the same period in 2022, at $4 billion. Overall video game hardware spending, however, fell 23 percent compared to a year ago, down to $327 million. Piscatella says, “All current generation consoles experienced a double-digit percentage decline in dollar sales compared to a year ago.”
The PS5 DualSense controller – specifically the Midnight Black version – was last month’s best-selling accessory. Overall accessory spending fell 2 percent compared to October 2022.
For all U.S. video game spending, it’s up 2 percent year-to-date at $43.4 billion.
For more, read Game Informer’s Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 review and then read Game Informer’s Super Mario Bros. Wonder review. After that, read Game Informer’s Assassin’s Creed Mirage review and then check out the September 2023 video game spending results.
Do any of today’s results surprise you? Let us know which in the comments below!