Starfield Was The Best-Selling Game In The US Last Month, PS5 Remained Top Console

Video game analyst group Circana has released its September 2023 U.S. video game market highlights and in it, the company reveals that developer Bethesda Game Studios' Starfield was the best-selling game last month, which is the month it launched. And after just six weeks on the market, Starfield is already the seventh best-selling game of the year. February's Hogwarts Legacy remains in the top spot. 

Starfield hit Xbox and PC on September 6 and while its Xbox Game Pass release surely helped it become the biggest launch ever for a Bethesda game with more than 6 million players, Circana's data tracks dollar sales. This means Starfield was the best-selling game of September despite Xbox Game Pass. Circana executive director Mat Piscatella says on Twitter that, "Starfield ranked as the best-selling title of the month across both Xbox and PC, with PC being its lead sales platform." 

Other big September releases, like Mortal Kombat 1, EA Sports FC 24, Payday 3, NBA 2K24, and The Crew: Motorfest also make appearances on Circana's list of the 20 best-selling games of last month. 

Here are the top 10 best-selling games of September 2023:

1. Starfield (new release)
2. Mortal Kombat 1 (new release)
3. EA Sports FC 24 (new release)
4. Madden NFL 24
5. Payday 3 (new release)
6. NBA 2K24 (new release)
7. The Crew: Motorfest (new release)
8. Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon
9. Hogwarts Legacy
10. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022)

And here are the top 10 best-selling games of 2023, year-to-date:

1. Hogwarts Legacy
2. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (digital sales not included)
3. Madden NFL 24
4. Diablo IV
5. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022)
6. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
7. Starfield (new release)
8. Mortal Kombat 1 (new release)
9. Resident Evil 4 (2023)
10. MLB: The Show 23 (digital sales not included)

You can check out the full top 20 for September 2023 here and the full top 20 for the entire year here. 

Piscatella says Mortal Kombat 1 was the best selling game of September on PlayStation platforms, placing in second on Xbox and PC, which is where Starfield came in first. Mortal Kombat 1 ranked third on Switch, even with the game's disastrous launch state on the platform.

Elsewhere in Circana's report, U.S. spending on video game content, hardware, and accessories grew 10% compared to a year ago, for a total of $4.5 billion. Piscatella says growth in spending on content and accessories offset an 8% decline in hardware. Year-to-date U.S. spending on video game products is up 2%, at $39.4 billion. He also notes that growth in digital premium download spending across consoles and PC drove most of September 2023's spending gains. 

Despite Starfield's clear September success, the PlayStation 5 remained the best-selling hardware platform in both unit and dollar sales; Xbox Series X/S ranked second again across both measures. The PS5 also continues to lead 2023 hardware sales in both units and dollars, according to Piscatella, and year-to-date hardware spending is up 10% compared to this time last year, at $3.7 billion. 

The Marvel's Spider-Man 2 PS5 DualSense controller was the best-selling accessory of last month, and accessory spending during the month increased 11% compared to September 2022, coming in at $197 million. 

For more, read Game Informer's Starfield review, and then check out Game Informer's Hogwarts Legacy review. After that, read Game Informer's Marvel's Spider-Man 2 review ahead of the game's release this Friday. 

Did you play Starfield last month? Let us know in the comments below!