Hogwarts Legacy became the best-selling game in the U.S. in 2023 across all major gaming platforms. This marks the first time in the last eight years when a Call of Duty or a Rockstar Games titles didn’t win the top spot in the U.S.
This revalation comes from Mat Priscatella, a gaming industry analyst. He has conducted a thorough analysis of the best-selling video games released in the last year. According to his analysis, Fortnite was the ‘most played game of 2023’ for both Xbox Series S|X and PlayStation 5, while Lethal Company by Zeekerss became the most played game of 2023 on Steam.
Hogwarts Legacy was also the best-selling game for PS5 in 2023 in the U.S., and despite record-breaking sales and a successful release that boosted PS5 sales, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 came in second in the list of PS5 best-sellers. Hogwarts Legacy also performed pretty well across individual platforms, capturing second place on Xbox Series S|X and fifth place on Nintendo Switch.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III helmed the position of the best-selling game on Xbox Series S|X in 2023, while the best-seller for Nintendo Switch in 2023 was, unsurprisingly, Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
The top ten best-selling games in the U.S. across all platforms (PS5, Xbox Series S|X, and Steam) were:
- Hogwarts Legacy
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III
- Madden NFL 24
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
- Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
- Diablo IV
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
- Mortal Kombat 1
- Star Wars Jedi: Survior
- EA Sports FC 24
Despite a very hyped release and widespread attention by gamers, Starfield by Bethesda Softworks came in 11th on all platforms. However, it did capture seventh rank on the best-selling Xbox Series S|X games for 2023. And despite winning many awards, including the Game of the Year award for 2023, Larian Studio’s Baldur’s Gate 3 failed to make it to top 20.
Apart from these best-seller lists, Piscatella’s comprehensive analysis yielded following results:
- Video game content spending increased by 1% in 2023 as compared to 2022.
- 2023 saw 13% increase in downloads of digital games.
- Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom managed to secure fifth overall rank, despite omission of digital-only sales in the analysis.
