Like death and taxes, you can usually count on Call of Duty to top the sales charts every year. Various entries in Activision’s war simulation franchise, going all the way back to 2009, have done just that. This year is a little different. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III as reported, fell to the second place media research company Circana.
According to the list, The legacy of Hogwarts At the top of the lists for 2023, sold about 22 million copies. This is despite minor controversies arising from both the game’s association with franchise creator JK Rowling – who used her celebrity position to support anti-trans views – and some within the game itself (but not all) as he saw drawing from antisemitic cartoons. Still, fans have been waiting decades for a high-quality AAA game set in a wizarding school, and The legacy of Hogwarts kept his promise a true open world Harry Potter title. Sales clearly reflect this.
Actually, it was only two other cases Which is why Call of Duty has been updated from the first place. Those were the years Grand Theft Auto V (2013) and Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018) is omitted. Both Rockstar titles absolutely dominated the conversation upon launch and became bona fide cultural touchstones. hogwarts legacy, while it’s pretty good, it’s nowhere near the buzz, so maybe this data shows that players are finally getting sick of Call of Duty, or maybe it’s Modern Warfare III it wasn’t a particularly inspiring introduction.
There’s also a Hyrule-sized elephant in the room. Circana puts the list The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom As the fifth best seller of 2023, but Nintendo is keeping its eShop numbers close to the vest, so the list only includes digital sales data through September. In other words, we don’t have nearly four months of sales data here, which we won’t get until the company releases its quarterly earnings data at the end of the month.
It may be Tears of the kingdom When it’s all said and done, it’ll be on top: these sales figures (19.5 million copies) only 2.5 million units away From the dethronement of Hogwarts Legacy, and that’s without the four months of sales spanning the holiday season.
Other top sellers include Madden NFL 24 in number three and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 in number four. Interestingly, it is the year 2022 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 actually ranked number seven. Finally, there is a game that will sell forever and ever until the hot death of the universe. Mario kart 8 It became the 19th, but without digital data from September.
