'Call of Duty: Black Ops 3' is the best-selling game of November; Fallout 4 comes second

 Twitter courtesy of Activision

The list of the best-selling games for November has just been released by the NPD Group, and ending up in the top spot is "Call of Duty: Black Ops 3."

The best-seller may come as a surprise to some, especially looking back on the considerable amount of hype that had built up ahead of "Fallout 4's" debut, but there were indicators that could have been seen as harbingers of this exact result.

A Nielsen Insight Group poll released ahead of the launches of both games revealed even back then that more gamers were more excited about the release of "Call of Duty: Black ops 3" than they were about "Fallout 4's" debut, Game Rant reported. 

It's also unclear just how big of an impact the availability of "Call of Duty: Black Ops 3" on last-gen platforms had on its November sales, but the fact remains that the first-person shooter is the month's top-selling title.

Despite "Fallout 4" not finishing in the top spot, the game did not do too bad itself as it finished in second place, edging out another major release in "Star Wars Battlefront" that ended up finishing in third.

Also included in the list are three sports games, with "Madden NFL 16," "NBA 2K16," and "FIFA 16" finishing in fourth, fifth, and sixth place, respectively. Finishing in seventh is "Need for Speed," and in eight place is Xbox One's "Halo 5: Guardians." "Assassin's Creed Syndicate" is in ninth place and rounding out the list at tenth is "Just Dance 2016."

November proved to be a big month for the video game industry in general, as NPD analyst Liam Callahan revealed that it was "the best month ever in total unit sales" for the current crop of available platforms, Gamespot reported.

November and December of last year had previously been the best months in terms of video game sales prior to this one.

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