Atomic Heart Is The Most Popular Title On Xbox In 2023 So Far

TrueAchievements reports that Atomic Heart may have more players on Xbox than Hogwarts Legacy. This is according to internal data from TrueAchievements, which has a sample pool of 1 million accounts that are tracked.

According to TrueAchievements data, 120,000 players from the sample pool played Atomic Heart during the first week of launch, making it the largest game of 2023 so far. In comparison, 100,000 players from the sample pool played Hogwarts Legacy during the first week of release.

Atomic Heart was released on Xbox Game Pass, allowing more players to play the game through the subscription service. High on Life, a game available on Game Pass in 2022 saw a first-week player count of 160k from the sample. 

While this data may not be truly indicative of both games’ true sales numbers on console, the pool of 1 million players is a healthy sample size to compare. Hogwarts legacy has sold 20 million copies worldwide, including PS5 and PC. The game is not yet available on PS4 and Xbox One, unlike Atomic Heart which is available for previous generation consoles. 

This may result in some bias in the sample, as we do not know how many players in the sample are using current-generation consoles as opposed to last-generation ones where the game is available. 

Bias in the data could also exist as last-generation console players may not have access to newer games like Hogwarts Legacy. Newer titles are continuing to abandon the last generation of consoles in order to take advantage of current-generation hardware.

Atomic Heart can appeal to these console owners as it is a new title available for last-generation consoles. There are also more PS4s and Xbox Ones than there are PS5s and Xbox Series X and S.

Atomic Heart was released on February 21st and takes place in an alternate-history world during a Soviet-era utopia where there is an outbreak of robots. The game takes its influence from the Bioshock series in its gameplay and design. You could argue the game also takes inspiration from Wolfenstein in its alternate history world. 

Atomic Heart is the first title from developer Mundfish, which announced the game back in 2017. The studio apologized for a racial caricature featured in Atomic Heart and is facing controversy for its use of Soviet-Russian imagery, prompting calls from Ukraine to ban the game.

While the game is successful on Xbox, the year is not over and many AAA titles are yet to be released. Games such as Starfield, Redfall, Star Wars: Jedi Survivor, S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2, and more are planned for release this year. Atomic Heart and other titles like Hogwarts Legacy could still be outshined by other AAA releases this year.