The Nintendo Switch has officially passed the PlayStation 2 to become the second best-selling gaming hardware in the US, now trailing only the Nintendo DS.
This comes from Circana’s November video game sales report, which says the Nintendo Switch’s lifetime unit sales are now 46.6 million (we asked for the updated total on the Nintendo DS).
But Switch sales are still slow. According to analysis by Circana’s Matt Piscatella, it was the second best-selling console in November, behind the PS5 in both units and dollars, with the Xbox series of consoles in third place. Overall hardware spending was flat, with a 15% year-over-year increase for PlayStation hardware off-setting a 29% decline in Xbox series sales and a 3% decline on the Switch.
PS5 sales were driven in part by the release of the PS5 Pro, which accounted for 19% of all PS5 unit sales and 28% of all dollar sales last month. Notably, the PS5 Pro’s launch month dollar sales were 50% higher than the PS4 Pro’s launch month sales, but unit sales were 12% lower. That’s not surprising, and roughly in line with analyst expectations, as the PS4 Pro launched at $399 and the PS5 Pro launched at $699.
Overall spending for games was down 7% year-over-year to $5.8 billion, and overall software spending was down 9% year-over-year to $4.5 billion. Both of these drops were in large part due solely to Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s launch over Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 last year. Black Ops 6 launched in October this year, boosting sales that month, while last year’s November launch of Modern Warfare 3 pumped up that month’s numbers, and Black Ops 6 sales dipped slightly this year, making it a tougher comparison.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was still the best-selling game this month, and is the second best-selling game of the year so far. It is behind only EA Sports College Football 25, which is now the best-selling sports game in US history by dollar sales, and ranks among the top 50 best-selling games of all time by the same metric.
Mario & Luigi: Super Mario Bros. debuted at number 7 for the month, just behind Super Mario Party Jamboree at number 6. Both games’ positions on the chart reflect physical sales only, however, so it’s possible that the inclusion of digital sales could be higher.
Several other big new games this month don’t reflect on the best-seller charts for various reasons. STALKER 2: Heart of Chernobyl launched on Game Pass, meaning many people played it “for free”. But it debuted at No. 6 on Circan’s player engagement tracker Xbox Monthly Active User chart, and it ranked No. 9 for Steam MAUs, indicating that it’s doing well for itself. In a similar vein, the free-to-play Genshin Impact launched on Xbox in November and debuted at No.10 for Xbox MAUs.
And on mobile, Pokemon TCG Pocket was the second best-selling mobile game by worldwide revenue in November, beating out the incredibly popular Monopoly GO. It was the sixth best-selling mobile game in the state for the month
The top 20 best-selling games in the US for the month of October based on dollar sales:
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
- Madden NFL 25
- EA Sports FC 25
- EA Sports College Football 25
- Dragon Ball: Sparking! zero
- Super Mario Party Jamboree*
- Mario and Luigi: brotherhood*
- Sonic X Shadow Generation
- NBA 2K25*
- Dragon Age: Velgard
- The Hogwarts Legacy
- Dragon Quest 3
- Astro Bot
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
- Silent Hill 2 (2024)
- undisputed
- Metaphor: ReFantazio
- minecraft*
- My Sims: The Cozy Bundle
- Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics
* Indicates that some or all digital sales are not included in Circana’s data. Some publishers, including Nintendo and Take-Two, did not share specific digital data for this report.
Rebecca Valentine is a senior reporter at IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send to rvalentine@ign.com.
