Hogwarts Legacy Has the Chance to Break a 14-Year Streak

Highlights

Hogwarts Legacy is currently the best-selling game of 2023, potentially breaking the streak of Call of Duty and Rockstar dominating the sales charts.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is a close contender, quickly rising up the charts in its first month of sales.
Modern Warfare 3 still has time to overtake Hogwarts Legacy's sales before the year is out.

Since 2009, the best-selling game of every year has either been a Call of Duty game or a title published by Rockstar Games, but that could potentially change thanks to Hogwarts Legacy. Open world Harry Potter action-RPG Hogwarts Legacy released early in 2023 to mostly positive reviews and record-breaking sales. Hogwarts Legacy sales have remained strong throughout the year, especially as the game has made its way to new platforms.

Initially, Hogwarts Legacy was only available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X. Some months later, Hogwarts Legacy made its way to PS4 and Xbox One with the massive open world experience mostly intact, minus some minor sacrifices that had to be made to make the game run well on older hardware. And most recently, Hogwarts Legacy released on the Nintendo Switch, having just landed on Nintendo's home console/handheld hybrid about a month ago.

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Hogwarts Legacy Gets New Update

Avalanche Software releases a new update for open world Harry Potter action-RPG Hogwarts Legacy that can be downloaded right now.

According to the latest Circana report, Hogwarts Legacy is currently the best-selling game of 2023. However, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is hot on its heels, skyrocketing up the best-selling list all the way to the number 2 position in its first month on sale. If Hogwarts Legacy manages to hold its lead, it will break the 14-year streak of either Call of Duty or Rockstar being the best-selling game each year. This would mark the first time since 2008 that a non-Call of Duty or Rockstar title took the top position. But considering how explosive Modern Warfare 3's debut month was, it could very well overtake Hogwarts Legacy when it's all said and done.

Best-Selling Games of 2023

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1. Hogwarts Legacy

2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023)

3. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

4. Marvel's Spider-Man 2

5. Madden NFL 24

6. Diablo 4

7. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022)

8. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

9. Mortal Kombat 1

10. Starfield

Call of Duty's incredible popularity really can't be overstated. Those looking over the list of best-selling games of 2023 will notice that one of the titles is actually a holdout from 2022, that being last year's Call of Duty game, Modern Warfare 2. There's a reason why Call of Duty has easily dominated the sales charts most years, though it's entirely possible that Modern Warfare 3's negative reviews will result in fewer sales compared to its predecessor. In fact, there is already some evidence to suggest that physical Call of Duty sales are down this year compared to last year in some regions.

Best-Selling Video Games Since 2008

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2008 - Wii Play

2009 - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

2010 - Call of Duty: Black Ops

2011 - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

2012 - Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

2013 - Grand Theft Auto 5

2014 - Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

2015 - Call of Duty: Black Ops 3

2016 - Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare

2017 - Call of Duty: WW2

2018 - Red Dead Redemption 2

2019 - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

2020 - Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War

2021 - Call of Duty: Vanguard

2022 - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022)

Call of Duty's incredible winning streak started in 2009, with 2008's Wii Play being the last time a non-Call of Duty or Rockstar game was the best-selling game of the year. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was hugely successful, with Call of Duty standing its ground as the best-selling game until it was finally dethroned by Grand Theft Auto 5 in 2013. Call of Duty found itself back on top for the next four years, but was dethroned when Rockstar Games released its next title, Red Dead Redemption 2, in 2018.

Call of Duty has once again found itself as the top-selling game every year since Red Dead Redemption 2's launch. 2019 went to the Modern Warfare reboot, while Black Ops Cold War was named the best-selling game of 2020. Call of Duty: Vanguard was the top game of 2021, and finally, 2022 went to the 2022 version of Modern Warfare 2.

Looking at the sales charts, there's really no question why Call of Duty is an annual release. While there are many who feel that Call of Duty's quality has diminished partly because of its annual release schedule, there's no denying that there is an absolutely massive audience for the franchise that will buy it year after year. It would make zero financial sense for Activision to slow things down, as Call of Duty is almost guaranteed to be the best-selling game each and every year it's released.

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Considering this, Hogwarts Legacy has its work cut out for it. Hogwarts Legacy being available on more platforms than Modern Warfare 3 might help it keep its top spot, but considering how successful MW3 has already been, it may easily overtake the Harry Potter game by the time December is over. Both games will likely be big hits this holiday season, and so it will be interesting to see which one comes out on top.

Looking ahead, Call of Duty 2024 will almost certainly be next year's best-selling game, as Treyarch has a lot of goodwill with CoD fans and the studio hasn't put out a new release since 2020's Black Ops Cold War. Rockstar will find itself back in the equation when Grand Theft Auto 6 launches in 2025, and unless the game is delayed to the next year, there's really no debate that GTA 6 will be taking the top spot in a couple of years. So while Hogwarts Legacy can potentially break the streak for now, it seems that the cycle of Call of Duty and Rockstar dominating the best-selling games charts will inevitably return.

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Legacy

$42 $70 Save $28

Hogwarts Legacy is a game that allows players to explore an open world, including locations such as Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, the Forbidden Forest, and the surrounding Overland area. Players can create their unique witch or wizard character, learn spells, brew potions, grow plants, and tend to magical beasts during their journey. Sorting into a Hogwarts house and forging relationships with other characters enable players to master various skills and shape their characters' development.

The game features an original wizarding world adventure set in an unexplored era, where players uncover a hidden truth from the past. Challenging encounters await, such as battles against trolls, Dark Wizards, goblins, and a dangerous villain who poses a threat to the fate of the world.