Like death and taxes, you can usually count on a Call of Duty game to top the sales charts every year. The various entries in Activision's war simulation franchise have mostly done just that, since 2009. This year is a little different. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III has fallen to second place, according to reports media research firm Circana.
According to the list, Hogwarts Legacy topped the 2023 charts, selling around 22 million copies. This is despite the not insignificant controversy the game generated, both due to its association with franchise creator JK Rowling, who took advantage of her celebrity position to espouse anti-trans views, and also due to tropes within the game itself. some (but not all) saw how based on anti-Semitic caricatures. Still, fans had been waiting for a high-quality AAA game set at the magic school for decades and Hogwarts Legacy delivered on the promise of a true open-world Harry Potter title. Sales obviously reflect that.
In fact, there have been only two other occasions in which Call of Duty was knocked out of first place. They were the years in which Grand Theft Auto V (2013) and Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018) were released. Both Rockstar titles absolutely dominated the conversation upon their release, becoming true cultural touchstones. hogwarts legacy, While it's very good, it hasn't come close to that level of hype, so perhaps this data illustrates that players are finally getting tired of Call of Duty, or maybe it's just that. Modern Warfare III It wasn't a particularly inspiring entry.
There's also the Hyrule-sized elephant in the room. The Circana list puts The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom as the fifth best-seller of 2023, but Nintendo keeps its eShop numbers close to the vest, so the list only includes digital sales data through September. In other words, there's about four months of sales data missing here, which we won't get until the company releases quarterly earnings information at the end of the month.
It is possible that Tears of the Kingdom will end up on top when all is said and done: its sales figures (19.5 million copies) are a just 2.5 million units away to dethrone Hogwarts Legacy, and that's without the four months of sales that include the Christmas season.
Other best-selling products include Madden NFL 24 at number three and Marvel's Spider-Man 2 at number four. Curiously, 2022 Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 In fact, it ranked number seven. Finally, there is the game that will sell forever and ever until the heat death of the universe. mario kart 8 ranked 19th, but also without digital data as of September.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/call-of-duty-didnt-top-the-yearly-sales-charts-for-one-of-the-first-times-since-2009 -191641232.html?src=rss
