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PS5 Best-Selling Console in the US in December, Hogwarts Legacy Best-Seller in 2023

PS5 Best-Selling Console in the US in December, Hogwarts Legacy Best-Seller in 2023 - Sales

by William D'Angelo , posted on 18 January 2024 / 8,850 Views

The PlayStation 5 was the best-selling console in the US in December 2023 in terms of units sold and dollar sales, according to figures from Circana (formerly The NPD Group). Circana includes the dates for the five week period of November 26 to December 30.

The Nintendo Switch was second best-selling console in terms of units sold and dollar sales. The Xbox Series X|S was third best-selling console in terms of units sold and dollar sales.

Dollar sales for PlayStation hardware set a new one month record for Sony, beating the previous Sony record set in December 2022.

Unit sales for the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 are up by double-digit percentages, while Nintendo Switch sales are down by double-digit percentages.

The Xbox Series X|S did set a new lifetime high in the US in terms of unit sales for the month of December for the platform, beating the previous record set in December 2021.

Growth in Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 hardware dollar sales offset a double-digit percentage decline for the Nintendo Switch.

For the entire year of 2023, the PlayStation 5 is the best-selling console in terms of both units sold and dollar sales. The Nintendo Switch comes in second place in both units sold and dollar sales, while the Xbox Series X|S comes in third place.

Overall spending on video games in December was up four percent year-on-year from $7.63 billion to $7.91 billion. Spending on video game content increased three percent from $5.57 billion to $5.73 billion, while video game hardware sales was up four percent from $1.54 billion to $ 1.60 billion.

Overall spending on video games in 2023 is up one percent from $56.62 billion to $57.19 billion. Spending on video game content is up one percent from $47.49 billion to $47.97 billion, while video game hardware sales dropped less than one percent from $6.60 billion to $6.59 billion.

"Annual U.S. spending on video game content, hardware and accessories reached $57.2 billion in 2023, an increase of 1% when compared to 2022," said Circana Executive Director and Video Game Industry Analyst Mat Piscatella. "December spending grew 4%, to $7.9 billion."

Piscatella added, "Video game content spending ended 2023 1% higher than 2022, driven by a 13% increase in digital premium download (full game) spending on console platforms."

Hogwarts Legacy ended 2023 as the best-selling game of the year in the US in terms of dollar sales. It is the first year since 2008 with Rock Band that a non-Call of Duty or Rockstar game ranked first place.

Hogwarts Legacy was the best-selling game of the year on PlayStation platforms, second on Xbox platforms, and fifth on Nintendo platforms.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was the best-selling game in December and the second best-selling game of 2023. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was the seventh best-selling game of 2023. The Call of Duty franchise was the best-selling franchise in the US in 2023 for the 15th straight year.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was the best-selling game of 2023 on Nintendo platforms and the fifth best-selling overall, even though Nintendo does not share digital sales of its games.

Fortnite had the highest number of monthly active users in the US in December on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, while it was Lethal Company on Steam. 36 percent of active PlayStation 5 players and 31 percent of active Xbox Series X|S players played Fortnite at least once during December.

Here are the top 20 best-selling games in terms of dollars for December 2023:

Here are the top 20 best-selling games in 2023 year-to-date:

Here are the top 20 games played on the PlayStation 5 ranked by monthly active users:

Here are the top 20 games played on the Xbox Series X|S ranked by monthly active users:

Here are the top 20 games played on Steam ranked by monthly active users:

Here are the top 20 best-selling premium games on PlayStation platforms in 2023:

Here are the top 20 best-selling premium games on Xbox platforms in 2023:

Here are the top 20 best-selling premium games on Nintendo platforms in 2023:


A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.


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38 Comments
Zeltaz13 (on 18 January 2024)

Wtf happened in the comments

  • +4
Bandorr Zeltaz13 (on 18 January 2024)

Someone accidentally made the same comment multiple times. Then they got deleted. But they still count as a "post".

  • 0
Manlytears (on 18 January 2024)

Xbox numbers are not looking good. They need some big changes, their strategy is not working.

  • +2
Shtinamin_ (on 18 January 2024)

When it says PS5 and Xbox Series are up by double digits and Switch is down by double digits. What is it up and down from? Last year or last month.

What percentages do you think they are?

Personal prediction
PS5: +18%
Xbox Series: +29%
Switch: -14%
(Made up and fun to discuss, until true numbers arrive)

  • +1
UnderwaterFunktown (on 18 January 2024)

Rise up for a non-CoD year winner! I wouldn't be suprised if TotK also outsold it with digital included.

  • +1
NightF0x73 (on 18 January 2024)

Microsoft need to continu there effort with delivering games every quarter like Booty said to erase the Xbox One era that truly kill the trust in the brand. Recurrent showcase like developer direct must continu too !

Being clear in there strategy could be cool too ... (Microsoft weakness in general, not just Xbox IMO).

  • +1
method114 NightF0x73 (on 18 January 2024)

Their messaging has been all over the place when it comes to Xbox. At this point I believe it's intentional. In order to restore trust in the brand it would take a good decade of releasing quality games. I don't think they want to or plan to wait that long.

  • +2
xMetroid (on 18 January 2024)

Zelda TOTK came back from the dead for the holidays. Hogward did well on Switch too it seems. Switch being down as much and Nintendo not lifting a finger... yea there is no doubt Switch 2 is releasing this year, they are letting it die.

  • 0
hellobion2 (on 18 January 2024)

Happy to see harry potter is getting it's due

  • 0
firebush03 (on 18 January 2024)

It should be worth noting that Nintendo sales figures don’t account for digital (i.e. approximately half of all sales figures). It’s hard to say if Zelda was able to edge ahead and we just don’t know yet?

  • -6
Random_Matt firebush03 (on 18 January 2024)

It already says in the article, so.......

  • +1
firebush03 Random_Matt (on 18 January 2024)

WAIT NO WAY?? I NEVER KNEW THAT!! (i’m illiterate).

yes, i saw that it states this in the article. All I’m saying is that it should be “kept in mind”. As of the moment, Hogwarts is the most profitable game of last year. However, this could change once we receive information on digital figures from Nintendo.

  • -2
DekutheEvilClown firebush03 (on 18 January 2024)

Nintendo’s digital sales are not 50% in units though, their revenue split is about 50%(i didn’t check the last full year accounts) which means unit sales in units are way below 50%. For reference Sony reported FY22 physical software revenue of ¥193,439M and Digital software at ¥660,932M which is a 3.4 to 1 ratio for digital software. Digital software as units was 66% which is 2 to 1 though.

So revenue will skew the percentage as digital games are much more profitable. Ninendo’s digital rate is probably around 30-35%

  • +8
firebush03 DekutheEvilClown (on 18 January 2024)

i see. I would need to find the figures again, but I trust that would make more sense. It should be noted that the article does explicitly state though that Hogwarts has claimed to have generated the most revenue, not necessarily the most units…so I guess ultimately what you’ve said makes no difference other than correcting my error lol. But I do appreciate the clarification.

  • 0
DekutheEvilClown firebush03 (on 18 January 2024)

Actually it does make a difference because it’s based on Gross Revenue not Net Revenue. So a $50 digital game and a $50 physical game actually gross the same amount, $50. It doesn’t net the same for the publisher though. Admittedly this would not be very clear at all for most people, and probably sounds quite weird.

  • 0
firebush03 DekutheEvilClown (on 18 January 2024)

I’m sorry man, im short on sleep today lmao. you’re right, my bad.

  • 0
NSS7 firebush03 (on 18 January 2024)

If Playstation 1st party digital share is around 30%-40% according to leak I can't see Nintendo doing half.

  • +3
firebush03 NSS7 (on 18 January 2024)

im just relaying what they’ve released: you can believe it or you cannot. Though DekuTheEvilClown has maybe corrected where I might’ve been a little off in my initial comment.

  • -1
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