October 2024 sales charts: Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 drives a surge in Xbox Game Pass subscriptions

October was a huge month for new releases, with eight of the top 10 best-selling games in the US being newly released. But as usual, nothing could match the success of Call of Duty, and Black Ops 6 gave the franchise another #1 debut despite its inclusion on Xbox Game Pass.

This information comes from Circana’s monthly report on U.S. video game spending by dollar sales, which found total video game spending increased 10% year-over-year to $4.7 billion, according to an analysis by Circana’s Mat Piscatella through Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. It was the best-selling game of the month and is already the third best-selling game of the year so far. In its first two weeks, sales of Black Ops 6 were 23% higher than sales of Modern Warfare 3 during the same period last year.

Interestingly, a whopping 82% of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s full-dollar sales were on PlayStation 5. But that shouldn’t be a surprise – this number also counts full game purchases, and with Black Ops 6 coming to Game Pass, it’s likely most Xbox users have chosen that route instead. But Circana also reports that industry-wide non-mobile video game subscription spending rose 16% year-over-year in October, and that was largely due to Black Ops 6 driving new Game Pass subscriptions.

After Black Ops 6 came Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, the fourth best-selling game of the year so far, the best-selling Dragon Ball game in the United States, and the third best-selling Bandai Namco game in history. Only Elden Ring and Dark Souls 3 performed better from Bandai’s portfolio.

Third place went to the remake of Silent Hill 2, which is also officially the second best-selling Silent Hill game of all time. Funnily enough, it’s beaten by the original Silent Hill 2. BioWare’s Dragon Age: The Veilguard debuted at #6 after releasing on the last day of the month, but was beaten by both Plaion’s Undisputed at #4 and fellow RPG Metaphor: ReFantazio at #5.

Some other interesting titles entered the US charts this month. The Final Fantasy I-VI Collection has gone from 90 last month to 19 this month, perhaps due to a recent sale on the Nintendo Switch that dropped the price from a whopping $75 to almost $55 (it’s still ongoing!). Meanwhile, Sifu rose from No. 502 last month to No. 9 on the Xbox Monthly Active Users list thanks to its recent addition to Xbox Game Pass.

In terms of hardware sales, it was unsurprisingly a less than stellar month. Hardware spending fell 23% year-over-year, with Switch sales down 38%, PS5 down 20% and Xbox Series down 18%. PS5 remains the best-selling hardware, both in terms of units and dollars, and Xbox followed in second place as the Switch nears the end of its life cycle. When it comes to accessories, PlayStation Portal was the top-selling item and spending on accessories increased by 15%. Black Friday sales are also now live, with Xbox leading the way with plenty of deals.

Here are the 20 best-selling games in the US for the month of October, based on dollar sales:

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
2. Dragon Ball: Sparks! Zero
3. Silent Hill 2
4. Undisputed
5. Metaphor: ReFantazio
6. Dragon Age: The Veil Guardian
7. Super Mario Party Jamboree!*
8. Madden NFL 25
9. Sonic X Shadow Generations
10. EA Sports FC 25
11. EA Sports College Football 25
12. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom*
13. Hogwarts legacy
14. NHL25
15. AstroBot
16. Minecraft*
17. NBA 2K25
18. Life is Strange: Double Exposure
19. Final Fantasy I-VI Bundle
20. Elden Ring

*Indicates that some or all digital sales are not included in Circana’s data. Some publishers, including Nintendo and Take-Two, are not sharing certain digital data for this report.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her post on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Do you have a story tip? Send it to [email protected].