Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was the best-selling game of December 2023 in the US, per Circana

The latest Call of Duty was the best-seller for December in the U.S, but not the year as a whole.

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What you need to know

What you need to know

2024 has kicked off, but we’ve got some insights into how 2023 shaped out with video game sales in its final weeks.

The latest reportfromCircana executive director and video game analyst Mat Piscatella shows thatCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 3was the best-selling game of December 2023. Despite itssecond monthin a row being on top, Call of Duty is #2 for the year overall, with Hogwarts Legacy taking the #1 spot for the year as a whole, with over 22 million copies sold worldwide.

For consoles, the PlayStation 5 was the best-seller in dollar sales and units sold, with the Nintendo Switch second in both measures. Despite being third place, Xbox consoles set a new high for unit sales during December, dethroning the prior record of December 2021. Piscatella notes that growth in PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S sales balanced out a decline in Nintendo Switch sales for the month.Below, you can see the full details on the best-selling and most-played games of the month. Please remember that some companies, such as Nintendo, Take-Two Interactive and Epic Games, do not share digital sales data, which is one reason why games likeAlan Wake 2andBaldur’s Gate 3have been absent from most of the charts.

December 2023 Circana: Here are the top 20 best-selling games in the U.S.

December 2023 Circana: Here are the top 20 best-selling games in the U.S.

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

  2. Super Mario Bros. Wonder*

  3. Madden NFL 24

  4. Hogwarts Legacy

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  1. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

  2. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora

  3. EA Sports FC 24

  4. Mortal Kombat 1

  5. NBA 2K24*

  6. Mario Kart 8*

  7. Super Mario RPG*

  8. Sonic Superstars

  9. Minecraft

  10. God of War Ragnarok

  11. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

  12. Elden Ring

  13. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom*

  14. Just Dance 2024

  15. Assassin’s Creed Mirage

  16. UFC 5

2023 Circana: Here are the best-selling games in the U.S. for the year

  1. Hogwarts Legacy

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

  3. Madden NFL 24

  4. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

  5. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom*

  6. Diablo 4

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

  8. Mortal Kombat 1

  9. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

  10. EA Sports FC 24

  11. Starfield

  12. Super Mario Bros. Wonder*

  13. Resident Evil 4 (2023)

  14. MLB The Show 23**

  15. Dead Island 2

  16. Final Fantasy 16

  17. Street Fighter 6

  18. Elden Ring

  19. Mario Kart 8*

  20. Minecraft*   No digital data shared** No digital data shared for Xbox or Nintendo platforms

What does the top 20 games bought and played means for players?

Diving into individual platform results, some interesting pictures emerge. Naturally, some of the biggest games are present everywhere, with Hogwarts Legacy the #1 game sold on PlayStation, #2 on Xbox, and fifth place on Nintendo Switch, despite the latter version launching toward the end of the year in November.

Console exclusive Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 was in second place on PlayStation 5, while Bethesda Game Studios' science-fiction RPGStarfieldwas #7 on Xbox. Blizzard Entertainment’s hack-and-slash adventure Diablo 4 is present on both consoles, taking the #4 spot on Xbox and the #8 spot on PlayStation.

The Dead Space remake, which arrived back in January 2023, is also in the top 20 for both consoles, at #15 on Xbox and just barely making the list at #20 for PlayStation.

While longevity of games sold is always going to drop off for some time, it’s safe to infer that interest in big-budget RPGs and well-crafted, nostalgic survival-horror is still going strong.

Analysis: A year of great games, but hardware took a hit

Seeing the range of games that were sold and played and where they landed at the end of the year is always fascinating to me. While 2023 was a great year for games, it was decidedly less fantastic for hardware as a whole. I’ll be curious to see if the leaked Xbox console refreshes pan out this year and how the market responds to those launches.

Samuel Tolbert is a freelance writer covering gaming news, previews, reviews, interviews and different aspects of the gaming industry, specifically focusing on Xbox and PC gaming on Windows Central. You can find him on Twitter@SamuelTolbert.