As is tradition here at Thinknum Alternative Data, we have rounded up the best-selling video games for the month of October 2019 from Amazon ($AMZN) and GameStop ($GME) into handy dandy lists. This includes games from Nintendo ($TYO:7974), Sony ($SNE), and literally one from Microsoft ($MSFT). Yeah, the Xbox One is not doing too hot on physical media sales but is killing it on digital and with Games Pass, so shout out to them for future-proofing their brand.

Nintendo comes out the big winner for the month, as a mix of new exclusive games and older classics like Smash Bros. and Breath of the Wild and Mario Kart helped to dominate the Amazon list. If you combine the two different SKUs for Call of Duty, technically it becomes the best selling game of the month, but it's nice to know people like me still love the Luigi's Mansion games.

Name

Category Rank (Avg)

Platform

Luigi's Mansion 3

7.1

Nintendo Switch

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Standard Edition)

7.8

Microsoft Xbox One

Pokemon Sword

8.9

Nintendo Switch

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Standard Edition)

10

Sony PS4

Pokemon Shield

12

Nintendo Switch

Pokemon Sword and Shield Double Pack

13.8

Nintendo Switch

Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

14.1

Nintendo Switch

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

14.4

Nintendo Switch

Ring Fit Adventure

15.7 Nintendo Switch

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

16.4 Nintendo Switch

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

18.8 Nintendo Switch

Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

25.6 Nintendo Switch

The Amazon best-sellers list we have here is based on sales-rank data reported by Amazon every day throughout the month of October 2019. It includes the top-100 selling items in each Amazon category. In this case, we looked just at the Amazon "Video Games" category, averaged each product's sales rank for the month, and then weighted based on the number of days each product remained a best-seller in the month.

So a few things to take away from the Gamestop best-sellers. There were not a lot of games, but a metric TON of shirts, toys, dolls, bundles, controllers, gift cards, consoles, and other things. The Switch Lite was a monster, as was special collector's editions of games. There were also not a lot of Xbox representation in the top 100, which is more in line with how the consoles are selling relative to these month-long lists. 

Name

Category Rank (Avg)

Platform

PlayStation 4 (1TB) Pro Death Stranding Edition 

13

Sony PS4

The Last of Us Part II Collector's Edition

17.3

Sony PS4

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare C.O.D.E Edition

30

Sony PS4

Pokemon Sword and Shield Double Pack

37.9

Nintendo Switch

Luigi's Mansion 3

62.4

Nintendo Switch

Pokemon Sword

76.6

Nintendo Switch 

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

86.6

Nintendo Switch

MLB 20 The Show 15th Anniversary Edition

90.8

Sony PS4

Madden NFL 20

91.4

Sony PS4

Both the Amazon and Gamestop lists have been heavily edited to remove duplicate listings, A TON of gift cards, toys, controllers, screen protectors, and other non-gaming related items. The gift cards alone were the top seven, so we'll skip them for now. The above lists represent only items that ranked every day in the month of October in order to correct for items that may have spiked in sales rank due to a flash sale.

About the Data:

Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales. 

Further Reading: 

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