Sales analysis group Circana (formerly The NPD Group) has released its roundup of sales data for the gaming industry in January 2024, and the names topping the charts are fairly familiar ones.
After December 2023's data gave us a look at the best-selling games of last year (in the US, at least), January's data shows that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is once again ruling the roost, just as it did during its launch month.
Modern Warfare 3 topped January's all-format sales charts, according to Circana's ever-reliable Mat Piscatella. Tekken 8 took second place and Rocksteady's Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which Warner Bros. recently admitted was disappointing in sales terms, slotted into third.
If you're wondering how Suicide Squad can be in January's charts despite the fact it was released in February, bear in mind that the game's early access period began on January 30th, and that Circana's reporting period spans December 30th through February 3rd.
Elsewhere in Piscatella and Circana's roundup, Palworld's performance is predictably stellar; the open-world survival creature-collecting hybrid managed to top Steam's most-played games for the month, which isn't surprising given its incredible sales numbers.
It's worth bearing in mind that Fortnite, which topped Xbox and PlayStation player charts, isn't available on Steam. Palworld hit third place on the Xbox charts, though, likely thanks to the fact that it debuted on Xbox Game Pass on launch day.
Modern Warfare 3 was also the best-selling game on PlayStation and Xbox platforms, while on Switch, that honor went to Super Mario Bros. Wonder, which, again, is unsurprising given its sales figures.
In hardware terms, the PS5 ranked highest in both unit and dollar sales for January 2024, showing that it's still going strong despite Sony's recent revision of its yearly sales targets for the machine.
As ever, it's well worth checking out Piscatella's full thread for more nerdy statistics and figures relating to the gaming industry last month. Check back in a month or so, when we'll doubtless have more analysis for you courtesy of Circana.
