Top 20 best-selling video games in the UK in 2023

In the UK last year, a total of more than 37 million video games were purchased across console and PC platforms. Overall, this is a rise of just over 2.5%, when compared with figures from 2022.

Despite the somewhat controversial rebranding and some stiff competition this year, EA Sports FC 24 ended the year as the top-selling video game title in the UK. Even though sales on this year’s footy series were down compared to recent years, it still remained the number-one seller in the country.

The No.2 spot came in the form of the Harry Potter-inspired action role-playing game, Hogwarts Legacy. Warner Bros. Games continued on from the success of LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga – which was the third highest-grossing game in the UK in 2022 – by easily taking the No.2 position in 2023 with Hogwarts Legacy.

If that wasn’t good enough, the Wizardly World adventure also ended the year as the No.1 top-selling title when it came to physical sales. It is worth mentioning that this feat was greatly aided by multiple release dates throughout the year on both last and current gen platforms.

Despite major criticism and the lowest acclaim and sales in years, it is no surprise that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 came in at No.3. Now critiqued as little more than a glorified expansion, with a sub-par main story to match, it is not shocking to see this year’s entry in the Call of Duty franchise drop by almost 40% in terms of sales, when compared with Modern Warfare 2 from the previous year.

All three games also received an additional boost from the benefit of having marketing partnerships with Sony. So, it comes as no real surprise that around half of all sales for each of these three titles came from the PS4 and PS5 platforms.

Regardless of the success of both EA Sports FC 24 and Hogwarts Legacy, overall 2023 wasn’t the best year for new intellectual properties. Starfield ended 2023 as the next-best new IP, but it could only reach a disappointing No.31 in the charts by the end of the year.

When it comes to the highest-selling new IP of 2022, Elden Ring, which reached No.4. in the charts for that year, 2023 saw the FromSoftware developed title finish in a respectable No.28 position.

Disney also enjoyed another good year, with PlayStation the exclusive Spider-Man 2 and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor both finishing 2023 in the top 10. It was a somewhat quiet year for Nintendo compared to previous years. However, be that as it may, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom ended the year in the No.9 position, with Super Mario Bros Wonder just behind at No.11.

Some of the other best-selling new releases to make it into the top 20 for 2023 were, Assassin’s Creed Mirage at No.14 and the Resident Evil 4 remake at No.15. Some of the best yearly- recurring new releases were NBA 2K23 at No.16, WWE 2K23 at No.18, and F1 23 at No.19.

A few other notable titles to make it into the charts worth also mentioning are Dead Island 2 at No.25, Dead Space Remake at No.29, Mortal Kombat 1 at No.30, and Final Fantasy 16 at No.32. EA Sports UFC 5 came in at No.47, while Avatar Frontiers of Pandora finished the year at No.54, and Street Fighter 6 came in just behind atNo.56.

You may have noticed a few games missing from this list, with one major game in particular being absent (Baldur’s Gate 3). This is simply because games for certain publishers don’t appear on the GSD data lists. It cannot be denied that Baldur’s Gate 3 was one of the biggest games of the year, winning countless awards and even redefining the industry to a certain extent.

It was another big year for console sales in the UK. Overall, almost 2.4 million total consoles were sold in the UK for 2023, which is an increase of more than 9% compared with the previous year. The PlayStation 5 was the biggest reason for this by far. Compared to 2022, sales of the PS5 increased by more than 55%, making it the biggest and best year for a PlayStation console in practically a decade.

The Nintendo Switch ended 2023 as the second-best console, even though sales continue to be down year over year. Having said that, it is now more than seven years that the Nintendo Switch has been on the market, so a continual decrease in sales isn’t surprising.

The story is similar with both the Xbox Series S and X consoles, with sales also dropping in 2023 compared to the year before. Finally, in terms of accessory sales, just over 9 million items were sold throughout UK retailers in 2023. This is also a slight decrease of just over 4% when set side by side with sales figures from 2022.