2023 has undoubtedly been a massive year for gaming, in particular when it comes to the sheer number of high quality titles published on a constant basis. With the year coming to a close, Google has released its search statistics, showing the most popular games of the year.
Published to their Google trends site, the tech giant released its top 10 list of the most searched for games throughout 2023 – offering a rather surprising outcome:
- Hogwarts Legacy
- The Last of Us
- Connections
- Battlegrounds Mobile India
- Starfield
- Baldur's Gate 3
- Suika Game
- Diablo IV
- Atomic Heart
- Sons of the Forest
While some of the included games would undeniably be deemed as the biggest of the year, it is interesting to see the likes of Atomic Heart and Sons of the Forest make the list.
There is no denying that Hogwarts Legacy sold millions of copies and represents by far the best Harry Potter game of all time, but the reasons for its Google search popularity likely has little to do with the game itself and more to do with the controversy surrounding JK Rowling,
Similarly, aside from the PC release of The Last of Us Part 1, there has not actually been a new TLOU game released this year. That said, it was of course shot to 2nd place thanks to the overwhelming success of the HBO adaptation (this is further evidenced by the fact that TLOU took the top stop for TV Show searches in 2023).
With much of our gaming sphere revolving around more hardcore experiences, it is interesting to see how the wider overall gaming landscape for 2023 actually panned out.
KitGuru says: What do you think of the list? Are there any games which you don’t recognise on there? What game do you reckon you searched for the most in 2023? Let us know down below.