October 2017 NPD: Middle-earth: Shadow of War emerges with the One Ring (of top sales)

Middle-earth and ancient Egypt were popular destinations last month as Monolith Productions’ Middle-earth: Shadow of War and Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed: Origins reached No. 1 and 2 respectively on the best sellers chart. However, video game spending overall was down 11 percent year-over-year, according to the industry-tracking firm The NPD Group. The only segment that was up was hardware, thanks primarily to Nintendo.

“Total video game spending in October 2017, which includes hardware, software and accessories, fell 11 percent versus year ago to $825 million,” NPD analyst Mat Piscatella said. “Gains in hardware spending were offset by declines in software and accessories.”