Something We Haven't Seen In 15 Years Of US Video Game Sales Just Happened

Every year since 2009, a Call of Duty game or the newest release from Rockstar Games has been the No. 1 best-selling title of the year in the United States. But in 2023, that lengthy run came to an end. The 2023 US video game industry sales data has been released, and it shows that Hogwarts Legacy finished the year as the No. 1 best-selling game, outselling Modern Warfare III and every other game.

Hogwarts Legacy launched in February, while Modern Warfare III arrived in November, so the Harry Potter game has a huge advantage in terms of total time in the market relative to Call of Duty. Beyond that, Piscatella told IGN that Modern Warfare II is selling worse than Modern Warfare II did a year ago during a similar length of time on the market.

Modern Warfare III also had poor reviews relative to Modern Warfare II and previous entries in the series, but whether or not the game's critical reception had any relation to sales is unknown.

And in any event, Modern Warfare III is not doing badly from a commercial perspective. It was the No. 1 best-selling game of November and December in the US.

Helping Hogwarts Legacy, meanwhile, is the fact that it just recently came to Nintendo Switch and is putting up big numbers on that platform. For comparison, Modern Warfare III is not available on Switch.

Given the huge success of Hogwarts Legacy, many are expecting a sequel, but that has not been confirmed. What we do know is a Quidditch game is in the works called Quidditch Champions. Controversial author J.K. Rowling is not involved with Hogwarts Legacy. You can read GameSpot's piece regarding her comments on sexual identity and gender to inform yourself about the context.

For more sales data, check out the top 20 best-selling games in the US for December 2023 and the top 20 best-selling games of 2023.