What you need to know
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was the best-selling game of November 2023, according to the latest Circana report.
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is already the second best-selling game of the year, only behind Hogwarts Legacy.
- Sony's PlayStation 5 was the best-selling console of the month in dollar sales and units sold, while Xbox Series consoles were second in both categories.
Another month means more video game sales data to pour over.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was the best-selling game of November 2023, knocking Marvel's Spider-Man 2 from its top spot last month. That's according to Circana executive director Mat Piscatella, who shared the latest details for hardware and software sales in the U.S. on Wednesday. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 also instantly becomes the second best-selling game of the year, behind only Hogwarts Legacy, which launched all the way back in February on current-generation hardware and just had a Nintendo Switch version release.
For consoles, the PlayStation 5 was the best-seller in units sold and dollar sales, with Xbox Series X|S hardware taking second place in both measures, meaning the long-running Nintendo Switch was in third place. Overall, total sales reached $5.86 billion for the month, a 7% drop year-over-year, a drop that was primarily driven by a decrease in hardware sales.
Below, you can see the full details on the best-selling and most-played games of the month. As always, remember that some companies, such as Nintendo, Take-Two Interactive and Epic Games, do not share digital sales data, which is why games like Baldur's Gate 3 have been absent from most of the charts.
November 2023 Circana: Here are the top 20 best-selling games in the U.S.
1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023)
2. Marvel's Spider-Man 2
3. Hogwarts Legacy
4. Madden NFL 24
5. Super Mario Bros. Wonder*
6. EA Sports FC 24
7. Super Mario RPG (2023)*
8. Mortal Kombat 1
9. NBA 2K24*
10. UFC 5
11. Assassin's Creed Mirage
12. Naruto x Boruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections
13. Sonic Superstars
14. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
15. God of War Ragnarok
16. NHL 24
17. Star Ocean: The Second Story R
18. Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales
19. Minecraft
20. Just Dance 2024 Edition
November 2023 Circana: Here are the best-selling games in the U.S. so far this year
1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023)
2. Hogwarts Legacy
3. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom*
4. Marvel's Spider-Man 2
5. Madden NFL 24
6. Diablo 4
6. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022)
8. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
9. Mortal Kombat 1
10. Starfield
11. Resident Evil 4 (2023)
12. EA Sports FC 24
13. MLB The Show 23**
14. Dead Island 2
15. Super Mario Bros. Wonder*
16. Final Fantasy 16
17. Street Fighter 6
18. FIFA 23
19. Elden Ring
20. Remnant 2
November 2023 Circana: Top 20 games played by platform
PlayStation:
1. Fortnite
2. Call of Duty HQ
3. Marvel's Spider-Man 2
4. Grand Theft Auto V
5. Roblox
6. NBA 2K24
7. Mortal Kombat 1
8. Madden NFL 24
9. Apex Legends
10. Minecraft
11. Aliens: Fireteam Elite
12. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
13. Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales
14. Gotham Knights
15. Overwatch 2
16. NBA 2K23
17. Dragon Ball: The Breakers
18. Rocket League
19. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege
20. WWE WK23
Xbox:
1. Fortnite
2. Call of Duty HQ
3. Grand Theft Auto V
4. Roblox
5. Minecraft
6. Starfield
7. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege
8. Apex Legends
9. NBA 2K24
10. Madden NFL 24
11. Gotham Knights
12. Forza Motorsport (2023)
13. Forza Horizon 5
14. Rocket League
15. Overwatch 2
16. Halo Infinite
17. Dead Space (2023)
18. Wild Hearts
19. Mortal Kombat 1
20. Madden NFL 23
Steam:
1. Counter-Strike 2
2. Lethal Company
3. Baldur's Gate 3
4. The Finals
5. Rocket League
6. Call of Duty HQ
7. Apex Legends
8. Cyberpunk 2077
9. Risk of Rain Returns
10. Risk of Rain 2
11. Destiny 2
12. BattleBit Remastered
13. Warhammer 40,000: Darktide
14. Dead by Daylight
15. Team Fortress 2
16. Phasmaphobia
17. Deep Rock Galactic
18. Rust
19. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege
20. Half-Life
Analysis: Great games selling well, but hardware is soft
The sheer variety of games in the best-seller lists and the most-played charts is great to see, and bodes well for the health of the industry overall. The drop in hardware sales is not great for such a busy month however. It's understandable for Nintendo Switch which is just super long-in-the-tooth now, but for PlayStation and Xbox, you'd think more people would want to grab discounted consoles over Black Friday. I'm curious how things continue to shake out in the coming weeks.
