The NPD October 2021 report has been released, and it finds total industry spending for the month across hardware, content and accessories up 16% year-over-year (yoy). This was a record for October as totals reached $4.4 billion. Year-to-date consumer spending reached $46.7 billion, which is up 12% when comparing yoy figures. Hardware sales in October were up 82% yoy to $472 million. Year-to-date hardware is up 53% when compared to the same period yoy, and is now sitting at $3.9 billion. Switch was the best-selling platform of October in both units and dollars, aided by the launch of the OLED Model. PS5 remains the best-selling hardware platform of 2021 year-to-date in dollars, but Switch still leads in unit sales. In software, Far Cry 6 debuted as the best-selling game on both Xbox and PlayStation platforms for the month and is now the eighth best-selling game of 2021. Back 4 Blood was the month’s second best-selling game, and was also second on both PlayStation and Xbox platforms. Metroid: Dread was the third best-selling game, and it came in first on the Nintendo Switch chart. Metroid: Dread saw the best launch month sales of any Metroid game in tracked history with physical dollar sales almost double that of Metroid: Prime. A look at the best-selling games for October can be found above. The best-selling games for individual consoles can be found in the gallery. Mobile game sales exceeded $2 billion, with a 12% uptick in yoy growth. Top mobile games by revenue in October 2021 included Candy Crush Saga, Garena Free Fire, Roblox, Coin Master, Pokemon GO, Call of Duty: Mobile, Homescapes, Lords Mobile, Clash Royale, and Genshin Impact. With accessories, spending increased 5% yoy to $158 million. Year-to-date accessory sales stand at $1.9 billion, which is a 9% increase yoy. The Xbox Elite Series 2 Wireless Controller was the best-selling accessory and the PS5 DualSense Wireless Controller White remains the best-selling accessory of the year. Gamepads in general remain the best-selling accessory segment year to date, and sales are up 7% yoy.
