EA's football offerings have sat at the top of the UK's annual boxed game charts for the last decade, but now their winning streak has come to an end.
As spotted by GamesIndustry.biz, 2023 saw Hogwarts Legacy claim the top spot over EA Sports FC 24, FIFA 24's replacement and EA's first football title since it parted ways with FIFA.
The action-RPG set in Harry Potter's Wizarding World launched in February 2023 for current-gen PlayStation and Xbox as well as PC. PS4 and Xbox One versions arrived in May, while Nintendo Switch fans had to wait until November to get in on the action. Sales were strongest on PS5, accounting for more than half the overall total. PS4 was the second-highest performer in terms of physical sales, followed by Switch.
According to figures released by GfK, a total of 12.76 million boxed games were sold in the UK during 2023. This is almost 5% lower than the previous year, no doubt due to the increasing popularity of digital games and the availability of diskless consoles. On top of that, two of 2023's biggest games, Baldur's Gate 3 and Alan Wake 2, didn't get physical editions, and were digital-only across all platforms.
The last game that managed to claim victory over FIFA in the UK's physical sales charts was GTA 5, all the way back in 2013. No doubt Rockstar will be banking on similar success with GTA 6, which was officially unveiled last month in an action-packed trailer that confirmed we're headed back to the sun-soaked Vice City.
The release of Hogwarts Legacy has been the subject of criticism and debate due to J.K. Rowling's public stance on gender identity, which continues to challenge the inclusivity at the heart of the Harry Potter community. Here is our explainer on the Hogwarts Legacy controversy.
