For the first time since 2008, a game not called Call of Duty or published by Rockstar took the crown as the best-selling video game of the year in the United States.
Hogwarts Legacy, the magic-filled role-playing game from Avalanche Software, topped the 2023 sales charts, beating out the yearly juggernaut Call of Duty.
How Did Hogwarts Legacy Manage to Topple Call of Duty?
Call of Duty had sat comfortably atop the U.S. sales charts for 15 straight years, with either Modern Warfare or Black Ops reliably churning out the highest sales every 12 months.
But 2023 was different, as gamers turned to Hogwarts Legacy to get their open-world action fix.
Hogwarts Legacy outsold Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which came in second place.
Over 22 million copies of Hogwarts Legacy were sold globally in 2023, making it one of the fastest-selling new IP launches ever.
According to data by Circana, the Harry Potter-based RPG was the best-selling game of 2023 on PlayStation platforms, second-best on Xbox, and fifth-best on Nintendo.
What Were the Other Top Selling Games of 2023?
The video game industry saw massive sales once again in 2023, with total spending on content, hardware, and accessories reaching $57.2 billion in the U.S. alone (a 1% rise over last year).
Here are the rest of the top 20 best-selling games of 2023 according to Circana’s report:
- Hogwarts Legacy
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
- Madden NFL 24
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
- Diablo 4
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
- Mortal Kombat 1
- Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
- EA Sports FC 24
- Starfield
- Super Mario Bros Wonder
- Resident Evil 4
- MLB The Show**
- Dead Island 2
- Final Fantasy 16
- Street Fighter 6
- Elden Ring
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe*
- Minecraft
Surprise Omissions from the Top 10
Some major 2023 releases were surprisingly absent from the top-selling games list.
Bethesda’s highly anticipated space RPG Starfield failed to crack the top 10, likely due to its availability on Xbox Game Pass only.
Nintendo-exclusive Super Mario Bros. Wonder also missed out, despite being the fastest-selling Mario game ever.
Nintendo’s sales data should be included in the Circana report.
If it was, Wonder would likely have charted much higher than its 12th-place finish.
Finally, the blockbuster RPG Baldur’s Gate 3 from Larian does not share sales data with Circana either.
It’s almost guaranteed Game of the Year winner and one of the year’s top sellers on Steam would have ranked very highly if its numbers were disclosed.
The Bottom Line
It was a year of changing fortunes in the video game industry.
Hogwarts Legacy dethroned Call of Duty to become 2023’s top seller, the first non-Call of Duty or Rockstar game to do so since 2008.
Whether the magic can hold for a second year running remains to be seen, but Hogwarts Legacy’s success proves gamers are always eager for quality new IP.
Expect the Wizarding World to loom large again across 2024’s charts.
Source: Circana, IGN
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