Gaming industry analysis group Circana (known as the NPD Group in a past life) has released its US data for September 2023, and the month's best-selling game might come as a surprise to you.
According to the indefatigable Mat Piscatella, Bethesda's spacefaring RPG Starfield was the month's best-selling game in dollar sales terms.
We knew that the game had a pretty impressive player count, but being September's best-selling title is impressive given that Starfield is readily available on Xbox Game Pass.
As you might expect, PC was the more popular platform for Starfield sales. No prizes for guessing which platform was the second most popular given that the game is only available on PC and Xbox Series X|S.
Fighting game Mortal Kombat 1 is in second place, with EA Sports FC 24 in third and Madden NFL 24 in fourth. Fifth place goes to Payday 3, which will hopefully come as a relief to Starbreeze given its past financial difficulties.
Year-to-date, Hogwarts Legacy still holds the top spot for September, with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom coming in second.
In hardware terms, the best-selling machine in September 2023 was the PlayStation 5, and that's true of both dollar and unit sales. The Xbox Series machines rank in second.
Accessory spending has increased by 11% over last year, too, with the official Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Limited Edition DualSense controller being the month's best-selling accessory. Hey, you can hook that up to download the game's day one patch!
Mobile gaming remains a massive part of the industry, and according to Sensor Tower's data, Monopoly Go!, Royal Match, and Roblox rule the roost, with mainstays Candy Crush Saga and Pokemon Go still hanging on in the top 10 as well.
It's well worth checking out Piscatella's full thread over on X if you want to delve into some more nerdy gaming industry stats. Stay tuned for more US gaming industry sales data news!
