By It’s official, for the first time in fifteen years a non-“Call of Duty” or Rockstar Games title has been confirmed as the best-selling video game of the year in the United States.
The figures hail from analytics giant Circana (via MatPiscatella) and cover both physical and full game digital sales from Steam, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo eShop.
According to the stats, Warner Bros. Games’ “Hogwarts Legacy” came in at number one, beating “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III” which was in second. Third was “Madden NFL 24,” fourth was “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2” and fifth was “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom”.
Also making the list was “Diablo IV” in sixth, 2022’s “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II” in seventh, “Mortal Kombat I” was eighth, “Star Wars: Jedi Survivor” was ninth, and “EA Sports FC 24” was tenth.
“Starfield,” “Super Mario Bros. Wonder, “Resident Evil 4” remake, “MLB: The Show 23,” “Dead Island 2,” “Final Fantasy XVI,” “Street Fighter 6,” second year sales of “Elden Ring,” and long running stallwarts “Mario Kart 8” and “Minecraft” round out the top 20.
There are caveats though. The list does NOT include digital sales for the Zelda, Mario and MLB titles so actual sales are likely higher – especially in the case of “Super Mario Bros. Wonder” which broke records for the franchise.
Activision Blizzard also does not share Battle.net sales so “Diablo IV” might also place higher. Developer Larian does not share sales data with Circana either which is why there’s a very notable absence of “Baldur’s Gate 3”. Its been suggested if it were to be included, the title might have made the top five.
“Rockband” back in 2008 was the last game to top the U.S. sales list that wasn’t part of the “Call of Duty” or Rockstar Games’ franchises like “Grand Theft Auto” and “Red Dead Redemption”.
Overall, annual U.S. spending on video game content, hardware and accessories reached $57.2 billion in 2023 – up 1% year on year.
Source: Polygon
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