Gaming Sales Report: How Hogwarts Legacy Challenges Call Of Duty's Market Domination

In recent years, Activision Blizzard Inc's Call of Duty and Take-Two Interactive Software Inc's (NASDAQ: TTWO) Rockstar games have reigned supreme in U.S. video game sales.

A new challenger, Hogwarts Legacy, is poised to disrupt this dominance, according to Circana's monthly reports.

Currently, Warner Bros. Discovery Inc's (NASDAQ: WBD) Hogwarts Legacy leads in sales, potentially dethroning the long-standing reign of Call of Duty and Rockstar titles for the first time since 2008, IGN reported.

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Regarding the sales performance, Circana analyst Mat Piscatella highlighted Hogwarts Legacy's remarkable sales, buoyed further by its recent launch on Nintendo ADR's (OTC: NTDOY) Nintendo Switch.

But, keep in mind Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's sales were trailing compared to Modern Warfare 2's at a similar point last year due to various factors, impacting its year-over-year performance.

"It's not to say that Modern Warfare 3 is doing poorly (it is already the second best-selling game of 2023 after all), but no it is not currently meeting what Modern Warfare II did a year ago," Piscatella told IGN.

The report highlighted a decline in hardware sales across all major consoles by over 20% year-over-year in November.

Piscatella attributed this to various factors, including Sony Group Corp.'s (NYSE: SONY) PS5 and Xbox Series facing a supply and demand balance issue compared to the previous year's constrained supply market.

The report also showcased notable debuts and movements in software sales, including Super Mario RPG remake, Naruto X Boruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections, Star Ocean: The Second Story R, God of War: Ragnarok and Just Dance 2024.

While the PlayStation 5 remained the best-selling hardware platform for 2023, the overall picture and final standings across categories will be clearer when Circana releases its full-year report in January.

Additionally, the absence of Grand Theft Auto 6 data in Circana's charts following Take-Two Interactive's data restrictions might impact future rankings, although Call of Duty is anticipated to reclaim dominance in upcoming years.

Nov 2023 US Video Game Market Highlights from Circana - U.S. consumer spending on video game content, hardware and accessories fell 7% when compared to a year ago, to $5.9 billion. The decline was driven by a 24% drop in hardware spending and a 3% dip in content. pic.twitter.com/le1vme6kLN

— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) December 13, 2023

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