Baldur’s Gate 3 is the game with the highest revenue and sales of 2023 according to detailed market data in Report predicting the state of the game industry in 2024 by Video Game Insights. BG3 was last year’s surprise success, winning multiple Game of the Year awards and topping the revenue and player count charts for months on end. Larian Studios’ DnD role-playing game is sure to become one of the best examples of success in a long time, and VG Insights’ report digs deeper into the title’s achievements.
VG Insights said Baldur’s Gate 3 topped the list for unit sales and total game sales. The top 10 two lists above mainly include paid games, the games do not have these microtransactions and games developed by smaller companies/teams.
According to estimates, Baldur’s Gate 3 earned about 657 million USD in total revenue, followed by Hogwarts Legacy with 341 million USD and Starfield with 235 million USD. Starfield is an interesting case because the game is still in third place despite being available from day one on Game Pass. However, the number of players for Bethesda’s space exploration game on Steam decreased faster than expected, especially when compared to BG3.
What’s interesting is Baldur’s Gate 3, Hogwarts Legacy, Starfield, Lethal Company and many other games among the top 10 games do not have the presence of microtransactions (Microtransaction – a small transaction business model used to buy virtual items in the game). VG Insights added in the report that only 6 of the top 24 games of 2023 had microtransactions, with Baldur’s Gate 3 coming out on top without any transactions. This signals a growing demand for games that feel fulfilling at launch and don’t require players to pay extra afterward.
