Modern Warfare 2 tops October sales, but Elden Ring clings on to year's best-to-date
Elden Ring might just end up being 2022's best-selling game when all is said and done.
There was little doubt that Modern Warfare 2 wasn't going to be October's best-selling game. Call of Duty has done so consistently for the past 15 years, even with the relatively underperforming Vanguard last year.
But there's another title Call of Duty also tends to claim at release, and that is the year's best-selling game. Things are a little different this year, however.
For the first time in a long, long time Call of Duty has competition capable of trading blows with it over this coveted title. That being Elden Ring, which remains 2022's best-selling game, even after the release of Modern Warfare 2.
That's according to the NPD Group's report for October, which has Modern Warfare 2 at the number two spot for the year-to-date sales. The NPD's report covers sales in the US, but seeing as it's often the biggest games market, it's usually representative of the rest of the world.
Both Activision, and Bandai Namco provide digital as well as physical data to the NPD, meaning sales on all platforms are included. The only caveat, however, is that Activision does not provide Steam sales numbers. This has been the case for a while, but it didn't matter much for Call of Duty since it skipped Steam in the last few years.
But with Modern Warfare 2 doing as well as it did on Steam, there could be a missing edge for Call of Duty this year that didn't exist before.
Nevertheless, there are still two months in the year where continued sales of Call of Duty could allow it to eventually overtake Elden Ring. It's worth noting, however, that Elden Ring has yet to get discounted on any official platform, meaning the majority of its nearly 17 million copies were sold at full price.
Bandai Namco may well discount the game in the coming weeks to keep Call of Duty at bay. Whatever happens, it's unusual for a FromSoftware game to butt heads with the biggest shooter franchise in games, but it only goes to show how much of a landmark release Elden Ring is.