Our 100 most popular Xbox games of 2023 list shows the power of Game Pass
Somehow, despite being in first place for nearly every chart of the year, Fortnite isn’t top of the chart for the most popular games of 2023. Minecraft has that honor (it was first for last year’s top 100 chart too), followed by GTA V in second, and then Fortnite in third. Call of Duty is in fourth, with Starfield managing to break in at fifth. Starfield was undoubtedly one of 2023’s biggest launches, so despite only releasing at the end of the year (and to mixed opinions) it’s not too much of a surprise to see it shoot so high. It’s got more planned for 2024, too, so it might manage to hold onto its impressive player numbers. Halo Infinite was fourth in last year’s chart for the top 100 most popular Xbox games but has slipped down to ninth this year despite regular updates and new Seasons, while Rocket League has raced up to tenth.
FIFA 23 has made a massive leap up from 50th last year to 11th this year. 2023 saw it join Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and EA Play, before being delisted ahead of EA Sports FC 24’s release. The next big change is Atomic Heart, which is at 18th after launching into Game Pass early this year. Another of this year’s big launches is Hogwarts Legacy, which has made it to 20th after launching a few weeks or so earlier than Atomic Heart. Payday 3, a September 2023 release, has made it to 22nd despite all its launch issues and patch delays.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has fallen from fifth place in last year’s chart to 23rd this year, while just below, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (another 2023 Game Pass launch) has reached 25th of the 100 most popular games. We then have a spate of other 2023 releases: Wo Long Fallen Dynasty at 27th, GoldenEye 007 at 28th, and Forza Motorsport at 29th. All launched on day one into Game Pass. Black Ops 2, meanwhile, has managed to leap up 40 places from last year’s spot at 72nd. Earlier this year, Xbox 360 Call of Duty games saw a huge spike in players after server fixes, which might help to explain this boost.
The rest of the chart is riddled with 2023’s releases, although they might not all be where you’d expect. At 35th we have Party Animals (a day-one Game Pass launch), followed by Stranded Deep at 36th, Monster Hunter Rise at 37th, and Redfall (another day-one Game Pass addition) at 38th. Redfall was plagued by bugs and lacklustre reviews at launch, prompting Phil Spencer to apologize and discuss his disappointment at letting down Xbox fans. However, Bethesda’s Pete Hines says the team will keep working on Redfall because it’s in Game Pass, saying, “we know, as a first-party studio, Game Pass lives forever.”
Madden NFL 23 launched in 2022 but makes its first appearance on the top 100 chart for 2023 at 40th, most likely thanks to joining Game Pass Ultimate via EA Play. Plenty of big Game Pass day-one launches show up throughout the chart, such as Lies of P at 41st, Minecraft Legends at 47th, and Hi-Fi Rush at 50th.
Then we have major releases like Diablo IV, which shows up at 46th. Some big releases, like Assassin’s Creed Mirage, don’t shop up on this top 100, but the older Assassin’s Creed games are all falling fast: Odyssey is down from 51st to 65th, while Valhalla is down from 47th to 82nd, and Origins is down from 41st to 89th.
The much-updated No Man’s Sky is down from 2022’s spot at 58th to 73rd, but Hello Games announced a new multiplayer game called Light No Fire, which already looks to be hugely ambitious. Meanwhile, it’s interesting to see Vampire Survivors has only made it into the top 100 this year, and at 91st, since it joined Game Pass last year. However, it’s had a lot of big updates, which might explain its sudden appearance. Rounding out the chart at 100th is Remnant 2, which launched earlier this year but joined Game Pass only recently.
Originally posted by www.trueachievements.com
