Hogwarts Legacy Just Broke A 14-Year Games Industry Streak – For the first time since 2008, something other than Call of Duty or a Rockstar game was the best-seller

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Hogwarts Legacy Just Broke A 14-Year Games Industry Streak
kotaku.com
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Tbh that's a low bar to pass. The newest CoD flopped pretty bad and Rockstar has been too busy with GTA6. Almost every other notable release was either a flop or a smaller studio or indie title.

While that might be true, 2023 was an year filled with great games and yet Hogwarts Legacy is first, and Call of Duty is 2nd.

As for notable games of the year that weren't flop (in no particular order):

  • Spider-Man 2
  • Baldur's Gate 3
  • Diablo IV
  • FF 16
  • Armored Core 6
  • Street Fighter 6
  • Alan Wake 2

Not to mention:

  • Resident Evil 4 Remake
  • Dead Space Remake

They may not be to your taste, but they all rated very highly. I haven't included any Nintendo games, cause they don't share digital data. Their numbers are based only on physical sales.

That's actually fair. I barely pay attention to AAA gaming to begin with, so most of these games just weren't on my radar. I just thought "oh, Starfield was the big hyped flop of the year, of course there wasn't much AAA competition"

No worries. Of all the games mentioned above Starfield was probably my most anticipated. But it let people down.

Those Nintendo releases this year we're bangers:

  • Tears of the Kingdom
  • Super Mario Wonder
  • Pikmin 4
  • Super Mario RPG Remake
  • Metroid Prime Remastered

Plus the DLCs for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe came out this year.

Great year for gaming IMO. But yeah, all of these are niche enough that I wouldn't expect any of them to be top sellers.

On the other hand, I know at least one non-gamer that got a Switch just to play Hogwarts Legacy.

Well, Mario has kind of a general appeal, so I won't call it a niche (and it was in 12th with just physical sale). And Pikmin 4 also sold over 2 Million in just first month or so, IIRC, though not sure if that's enough for being a top seller in a year like the one we just had.

Also, Tears of the Kingdom was on 5th overall sales, and that's only with the physical sales. Don't know the actual number difference between 1st and 5th, but with digital added, it could've at least entered top 3, if not gone for 1st.