2023 has come to a close, and what a year it was for games. The year was marked with the release of a number of high-profile games like Starfield, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Spider-Man 2, Diablo IV, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, and lots more. 2
2023 was a fantastic year for big games, but it was also a year marked with significant layoffs at developers big and small. Some estimates put the total number of video game industry layoffs in 2023 beyond 6,000.
Which games sold the best in 2023? The research company Circana, formerly known as NPD, publishes an updated list of the best-selling games, and now that the year has come to a close, we know which game sold more than all the rest. The ranking is not perfect or necessarily complete.
And the winner is… Hogwarts Legacy. It ends a lengthy streak that saw either Call of Duty or a Rockstar Games title taking the crown every year since 2009.
Hogwarts Legacy launched in February 2023, so it had a huge advantage in terms of time on the market compared to Modern Warfare III, which launched in November. Hogwarts Legacy is also available on the hugely popular Switch console, and Modern Warfare III is not.
Some companies do not share digital sales data with Circana. Given the rising popularity of buying a game digitally versus picking up a physical copy, this is notable. Additionally, a game’s unit-sales number alone or ranking does not necessarily reflect its total commercial performance. Subscription services like Game Pass are now popular, and in the case of Starfield, this, along with the game’s exclusivity to Xbox, might negatively impact straight sales numbers.
Additionally, Circana does not disclose specific sales numbers, only providing a ranking. And again, this list covers US video game sales only.
Read on through the gallery to see a rundown of 2023’s best-selling games. This list covers the period between January 1, 2023 and December 30, 2023.
Games marked with * denotes that no digital sales are included. Those marked with ^ signify that Xbox and Switch digital sales are not included.
