NPD: Call of Duty, Red Dead Redemption lead record October

October, a historically major month for big game releases, didn't disappoint. Between Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Red Dead Redemption II, and continued sales of other strong titles, October's report from the NPD group was a promising one for almost everyone involved.

Across all categories, spending on video games was up 73% year-over-year to $1.5 billion, with every category seeing growth. It's the highest total spend the NPD Group has seen in October since it began tracking in 1995.

Sony was solidly in charge this month with the PS4 standing as the best-selling hardware platform for October and keeping it firmly in its position as the best-selling console for 2018 so far. That's not all, though. PS4 sales in October reached an all-time platform high in October, and unit sales reached the highest number of any PlayStation hardware in October since the PlayStation 2 in 2002.

Xbox One sales were also up, which combined with PlayStation sales and offset somewhat by declines on other platforms saw overall hardware spending up 26% year-over-year to $300 million.

Accessory and game card spending grew 54 percent year-over-year to $280 million, an all-time high. Much of this was driven by headset and headphone sales, which have doubled year-over-year and are currently lead by Turtle Beach.

And finally, in software, Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII's launch month dollar sales represented the 8th highest ever since the NPD group began tracking in 1995. This naturally made it the best-selling game of the year and the second best-selling game over the last twelve months (beaten only by its predecessor, Call of Duty: WWII).

The question of whether or not Red Dead Redemption II would be able to catch Call of Duty seems settled by that fact alone, even though the actual rankings are skewed in Call of Duty's favor by virtue of its earlier release date. Red Dead Redemption II only had nine days of reported sales on this month's charts, but is nonetheless the second-best-selling game this year, tripling the launch month sales of its predecessor.

Overall, Call of Duty and Red Dead's reach combined with other strong, steady titles lifted software sales to $965 million for the month, more than doubling last year's sales and representing an all-time high for October. Year-to-date sales are up 16 percent year-over-year to $4.8 billion.

Top 10 selling games (physical and digital) for October 2018

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII
2. Red Dead Redemption II
3. Assassin's Creed Odyssey
4. NBA 2K19
5. Super Mario Party
6. Soul Caliber VI
7. FIFA 19
8. Marvel's Spider-Man
9. Madden NFL 19
10. WWE 2K19