Hogwarts Legacy wins | UK Boxed Charts

Hogwarts Legacy ends 2023 as the UK’s biggest physical video game.

It means EA Sports FC 24 was unable to catch Warner Bros’ Harry Potter spin-off. Hogwarts Legacy launched in February on PS5, PC and Xbox Series S and X, while EA’s football title landed in September.

It is the first time in a decade that EA’s football game, previously operating under the FIFA licence, isn’t the UK’s top boxed game. The last time this happened was in 2013 when Grand Theft Auto 5 took the top spot.

This is the first year EA’s football game has operated under its own branding, and not the FIFA IP, in 30 years. This is after Electronic Arts and the footballing body failed to agree new terms. Although EA Sports FC 24’s sales are down over more recent FIFA titles, it remains a huge title and when digital data comes in later this week, it’s expected to still be No.1 overall.

Hogwarts Legacy’s boxed sales came mostly on PS5, which accounted for well over half the title’s sales this year. The second biggest platform was PS4, followed by Nintendo Switch. The PS4 version arrived in May with the Nintendo Switch edition reaching shelves in November.

For 2023, 12.76 million boxed video games were sold in the UK, according to Gfk. That’s a drop of nearly 5% over 2022. Stay tuned to GamesIndustry.biz for the full 2023 market data, including hardware performance and digital game sales,

Hogwarts Legacy was also the final weekly No.1 of 2023, according to GfK data. It rose three places to No.1 despite a 33% drop in sales week-on-week. It beat Super Mario Bros Wonder, which holds No.2 position despite a 63% fall in sales week-on-week.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 rises one place to No.3 (down 61% week-on-week), Mario Kart 8: Deluxe is up to No.4 (down 44% week-on-week) and rounding off the Top Five is Spider-Man 2, which is a non-mover (down 64%).

EA Sports FC 24 is actually down five places to No.6 this week after a 76% sales drop.

Here is the GfK Boxed Top Ten for this week ending December 30, 2023: