Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is the best-selling game of November 2023 in the US, per Circana

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.

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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.