14 DAY TRIAL // Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is the best-selling video game launched during the month of November in the United States, according to the market research firm NPD Group, which says that the franchise has managed to maintain a winning record which extends to 2009, when Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was introduced.
The first-person shooter was developed by Sledgehammer Games and published by Activision, and the two companies have already said that it managed to defeat all other music albums and movie releases of this year in order to become the biggest entertainment launch of the year.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will get long-term support from Sledgehammer Games, which is already planning to deliver the first downloadable content package, called Havoc, in the first few months of 2015, with new maps and access to the all new Exo Zombies game mode.
Despite the solid performance of the shooter, the overall software segment of the video game industry did not have a great month and posted a decline of about 2 percent when compared to the same month in 2013.
Weirdly, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare sold best on the Xbox 360, which might be a long-term problem for the series and Activision.
This might be attributed to the fact that the NPD Group is not tracking digital sales, which are increasingly popular with gamers.
Liam Callahan, an analyst for the NPD Group, is quoted by VG247 as saying that “For the most part throughout 2014, we have seen software declines that were offset by year-over-year increases in hardware spending. This November, however, hardware declines totalled $294 million while software declined $17 million or 2%.”
GTA V on the Xbox One and the PS4 comes second
The Rockstar video game has managed to become a solid seller on the new hardware devices and the studio has long-term plans to add more multiplayer events and apparently at least one major single-player expansion.
Super Smash Bros., the Wii U-only release from Nintendo, has managed to grab the final position on the podium, which is great news for the device.
Madden NFL 15, which is getting updates and new content from EA Sports, is at the moment in fourth place in the United States for the month of November, followed by Pokemon Alpha Sapphire.
Far Cry 4, the open world shooter from Ubisoft, comes next, while the seventh position is occupied by the Omega Ruby version of Pokemon.
NBA 2K15 is the other sports title in the chart, followed by Assassin’s Creed: Unity.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection occupies the final position in the November NPD chart for the United States.
