Popular Xbox games — February 8th, 2023

It's a little later than usual, but we're back with our weekly gameplay chart of popular Xbox games... step right up and see what the most-played games have been and where your favourites come on the list!

The big games in those top spots on our Xbox gameplay chart are, as usual, proving hard to shift this week, with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II sitting pretty as usual (and still by a comfortable margin) and the usual suspects filling out the top five, with FIFA 23 slotting in to round it out as Game Pass newcomer GoldenEye 007 tumbles out of the top ten in only its second week. That gives the other top flight mainstays room to climb back up just below, joined by another new Game Pass arrival, with the console release of Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition driving it way up the chart from the tail end last week to a top ten spot this time.

It's not just GoldenEye from the Game Pass library that has taken a hit, either — Hi-Fi Rush and Monster Hunter Rise both ate fairly big drops this week, as did High on Life lower down. On the flipside, though, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R coming in at 24th is a decent showing for a niche fighter after joining the service, so it's not all doom and gloom for Game Pass stuff! The only other new arrival this week is Hogwarts Legacy, which manages to break into the top 30 based on its early access players alone, so that's likely to see a huge boost in next week's chart after the full launch on Friday.

Game Pass Quests continue to work their magic this week too, sending Injustice 2 and Unpacking back into the chart, while Free Play Days managed to help For Honor do the same. This week's casualties, meanwhile, are Call of Duty: Black Ops III (which admittedly only just misses out in 41st), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Stranded Deep, Stardew Valley, and Omori... Quests success really is fleeting, clearly. Looking forward, we've got even more games coming to Game Pass in the next few weeks, as announced earlier today, plus some fairly anticipated releases like Wild Hearts and Wanted: Dead. Which could be next to try and take on the immovable big boys at the top of our gameplay chart? While we ponder that, here's this week's top 40 chart in full.

Top 40 Xbox Gameplay Chart (February 8th, 2023)

Position	Game	Publisher	Last week
1	Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II	Activision	1
2	Fortnite	Epic Games	2
3	Minecraft	Xbox Game Studios	3
4	Grand Theft Auto V	Rockstar Games	4
5	FIFA 23	Electronic Arts	6
6	Rocket League	Psyonix	7
7	Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition	Xbox Game Studios	39
8	Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege	Ubisoft	9
9	Overwatch 2	Blizzard Entertainment	10
10	ROBLOX	Roblox	12
11	GoldenEye 007	Rare	5
12	Apex Legends	Electronic Arts	13
13	Forza Horizon 5	Xbox Game Studios	14
14	Destiny 2	Bungie	15
15	Hi-Fi Rush	Bethesda Softworks	11
16	Monster Hunter Rise	Capcom Entertainment	8
17	Halo Infinite	Xbox Game Studios	16
18	NBA 2K23	2K Sports	17
19	Madden NFL 23	Electronic Arts	18
20	Red Dead Redemption 2	Rockstar Games	19
21	Battlefield 2042	Electronic Arts	24
22	Elden Ring	Bandai Namco Entertainment	20
23	FIFA 22	Electronic Arts	21
24	JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R	Bandai Namco Entertainment	-
25	Fall Guys	Epic Games	22
26	Hogwarts Legacy	Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment	-
27	Halo: The Master Chief Collection	Xbox Game Studios	25
28	Sea of Thieves	Xbox Game Studios	26
29	Dead Space	Electronic Arts	37
30	ARK: Survival Evolved	Reverb Publishing	27
31	High On Life	Squanch Games	23
32	Dead by Daylight	505 Games	28
33	For Honor	Ubisoft	RE
34	PUBG: Battlegrounds	KRAFTON	33
35	The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition	Bethesda Softworks	32
36	EA SPORTS UFC 4	Electronic Arts	35
37	Injustice 2	Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment	RE
38	Unpacking	Humble Games	RE
39	SMITE	Hi-Rez Studios	30
40	Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War	Activision	36

Chart compiled using gameplay data from over 2.4 million active Xbox accounts. Chart information is copyright GameInsights. For details on how the chart is calculated, click here.

Written by Luke Albigés

Luke runs the TA news team, contributing where he can primarily with reviews and other long-form features — crafts he has honed across two decades of print and online gaming media experience, having worked with the likes of gamesTM, Eurogamer, Play, Retro Gamer, Edge, and many more. He loves all things Monster Hunter, enjoys a good D&D session, and has played way too much Destiny.