There’s no denying that 2023 has been an amazing year for video games, with several contenders for game of the decade out already in this year alone it should come as no surprise that several records have been broken, with 2023’s Hogwarts Legacy by Avalanche Software looking to break one final record before the year ends.
As reported by GameSpot, for the past 15 years the highest-selling game of the year has been either a part of the Call of Duty franchise or a product of Rockstar, but it looks as though Hogwarts Legacy is well on its way to being the first game in a long while to break out of that trend and wrestle the stranglehold those studios have on the title of highest seller of the year.
There are a number of reasons this could have happened, chief among them being that Rockstar did not release a game this year. While the monumental announcement of Grand Theft Auto 6 shook the gaming world for a while, they didn’t actually release anything. Then, on the other hand, Call of Duty did have a release this year, but it was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 which was release on November 10th of this year. This late release date likely means it’s playing catchup to Hogwarts in terms of sales, though it should also be noted that the reception of Modern Warfare 3 has been anything but positive, and this negative reception has likely had an impact on the game’s sales.
Though honestly it shouldn’t come as too much of a shock that Hogwarts Legacy was the biggest game of the year. Fans of Harry Potter have been clamoring for a AAA open-world RPG to take place in the world of witchcraft and wizardry for years, and Avalanche delivered. Such a massive IP’s first foray into the video game market was almost sure to be a massive success, and it helps that the game was well received by fans and critics.
In any case, this is a good sign. It’s never good when a handful of companies have a stranglehold on any yearly title, let alone arguably the most important one in sales, so whenever a newcomer arrives from seemingly out of nowhere and delivers an experience people love enough to make the year’s best seller, that’s a sign of a good and diverse industry.