In a nutshell: Industry research firm NPD Group has released its report on video game spending for the month of October, and it's good news for The Outer Worlds. Obsidian's RPG was the second best-selling game in US last month, beaten only by the latest entry in the always popular Call of Duty series.

Publisher Take-Two Interactive last week said that The Outer Worlds was "exceeding expectations," which is reflected in the report.

Total US video game sales for the month were $1.03 billion. That's down 34 percent compared to the same month last year, but there are couple of reasons for that: Red Dead Redemption 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops IV, which launched early in the October 2018.

Modern Warfare launched on October 25 and is already the best-selling game of the year to date. This marks the 12th consecutive year a Call of Duty game has been the best-selling title of its release month.

Despite the YoY decline, last month's software sales were the third-highest ever achieved for October, with only October 2008 and October 2018 beating it, said NPD analyst Mat Piscatella via VentureBeat.

Video Game hardware sales were also down, by 41 percent to $182 million. As we draw closer to the launch of the next-gen machines from Sony and Microsoft, it stands to reason that consumers are holding off from buying new consoles, with the Nintendo Switch and its variants being the exceptions.

"Year-to-date spending across tracked video game hardware, software, accessories, and game cards has fallen 10 percent when compared to 2018, to $9.3 billion," said Piscatella.

These are the top-selling games in the US last month:

  1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019
  2. The Outer Worlds
  3. Luigi's Mansion 3*
  4. Madden NFL 20
  5. NBA 2K20
  6. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Breakpoint
  7. WWE 2K20
  8. FIFA 20
  9. Borderlands 3
  10. Ring Fit Adventure
  11. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening*
  12. Mario Kart 8*
  13. Minecraft#
  14. Grand Theft Auto V
  15. Mortal Kombat 11
  16. Overwatch
  17. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
  18. Code Vein
  19. Red Dead Redemption II
  20. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*

The 10 best-selling games of 2019 so far:

  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019
  • NBA 2K20
  • Madden NFL 20
  • Borderlands 3
  • Mortal Kombat 11
  • Kingdom Hearts III
  • Tom Clancy's The Division 2
  • Anthem
  • Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
  • Grand Theft Auto V

* Digital sales not included
# Digital sales only include Xbox One and PlayStation 4