2023 was a great year for PS5 games, giving us some great new additions for our best PS5 games list like Resident Evil 4 and Final Fantasy XVI. That said, as your neighborhood Fortnite addict will tell you, the top PS5 games of 2023 are not all going to be games that launched this year. In fact, most of them weren't. So, besides the biggest PS5 games that debuted in 2023, what else were we playing on PlayStation this year?
The top 100 most-played PS5 and PS4 games of 2023
- The most-played PS5 and PS4 game of 2023 was Call of Duty Modern Warfare II
- The most-played new PS5 game of 2023 was Hogwarts Legacy at ninth place
- Over half the list was featured on PS Plus at some point during the year
Using our exclusive gameplay data from 3.2 million active PSN accounts (courtesy of our partnership with GameInsights), we've been keeping track of what PS5 and PS4 games players keep checking out the most. Each week, we list the top 40 most-played games on our PlayStation Chart, with many of the repeat offenders on those lists making the top 100 most-played PS5 games of 2023.
Surprising absolutely no one, the top spot was ultimately a contest between two massive games: Call of Duty Modern Warfare II and Fortnite. It could've went either way all year, but it seems Call of Duty has clinched the top spot in the end. This was undoubtedly helped by the fact that Call of Duty Modern Warfare III, which released late in the year, technically counts towards Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2's player count as it runs out of the same game client on PS5. Very sneaky, Activision.
As we know from the article linked above, the biggest PS5 game debut of 2023 was Hogwarts Legacy, but it was not a sure thing that it would be also be the most-played new game on the chart. At least it ranks above all other 2023 releases in terms of active players, falling into the ninth place spot. The next best-performing game from 2023 was Marvel's Spider-Man 2, a whole nine spots down at the 18th spot. To be fair, Hogwarts Legacy launched in February 2023, so it's been available for a lot longer than Spider-Man 2.
It's also worth reflecting on the influence of PS Plus on the average PS5 and PS4 player. Of the 100 most-played games in 2023, 52 titles where made available on PS Plus this year. That's 36 PS Plus Extra games (like Marvel's Spider-Man Miles Morales or Back 4 Blood) and 16 PS Plus Essential games (like Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War and Alan Wake Remastered). Sounds like we made the best of the value PS Plus Essential afforded its subscribers.
For all the rest, check out the top PS5 and PS4 games of 2023 in the chart below!
Note: Our data is limited to games that have their own trophy lists, which doesn't affect much seeing as almost every PS5 game has trophies. However, one big game from 2023 we are unable to track which might have made the list is Roblox, which launched on PS5 and PS4 this year without trophies. Roblox received a big campaign push via Sony, so we imagine it probably would have made this list, but due to lack of data we unfortunately have to exclude it.
Well, those were the most played PS5 games of 2023! Did anything catch you by surprise? Did your favorite game of the year make the top 100? Let us know down in the comments below. For those looking for a bit more insight, why not also check out our ranking of the best PS4 games — a good chunk of the top 100 can still be found on this list!
Chart compiled using gameplay data from over 3.2 million active PlayStation accounts (not just TrueTrophies accounts). Chart information is copyright GameInsights. Regarding this data:- When an account opens a game, this is registered as a game being played. Accounts can only register a game once per week.
- Our data is good for suggesting general trends — we represent this using percentages, not numbers.