Popular Xbox games — July 23, 2023

Our latest Gameplay Chart of popular Xbox games sees Modern Warfare 2 moving into the top spot while older CoD titles continue to see a resurgence.

Heidi Nicholas

Published 24 Jul 2023

This week it's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II in the top spot with GTA V in second place, and Fortnite, Minecraft, and FIFA 23 filling out the rest of the top five. Diablo 4 has managed to hop up a spot to sixth (it's not all good news for Diablo 4 this week, with the devs admitting its latest patch "is bad") while Rainbow Six Siege has also moved up a space to seventh, although Exoprimal has already fallen two spaces to eighth after last week's Xbox Game Pass launch. Further down, we see Black Ops II leaping up from 17th to 12th — like last week, a resurgence of older CoD games is a theme for this chart, especially since a number of older Xbox 360 Call of Duty games have seen a huge spike in players after a server fix.

Then we see Modern Warfare 2 (2009) zooming up from 32nd to 18th. Likewise, Black Ops 3 has flown up from 24th to 19th. Halo MCC has fallen two spots, but Sea of Thieves has sailed up five places, most likely thanks to its first Monkey Island update, which added new achievements. Then it’s back to CoDland, with Black Ops soaring from 35th to 22nd. Red Dead Redemption 2 and Fall Guys aren’t coping so well in the midst of the CoD resurgence; RDR2 is down three spots to 23rd, and Fall Guys has fallen from 19th to 24th. Dead by Daylight has also taken a pretty sizeable tumble from 22nd to 28th, but the arrival of Nicolas Cage in the game might see things turn around.

Merge & Blade makes its first appearance in the top 40 at 30th after being included in the latest Xbox Game Pass Weekly Quests. Then there’s more CoD with Black Ops Cold War dropping a space to 31st and Modern Warfare 3 breaking into the chart at 32nd. New Super Lucky’s Tale makes its debut appearance in the top 40 at 34th, again thanks to those Xbox Game Pass Weekly Quests. Then out of nowhere comes Elden Ring, breaking back into the top 40 at 38th, with Gang Beasts hanging on at 40th.

It's been another CoD-heavy week for the Gameplay Chart — the rest of the month sees more great games coming to Game Pass while later in July we get the likes of F1 Manager 2023. What do you expect to see in the top ten next?

Top 40 Xbox Gameplay Chart (w/e July 23, 2023)

Position	Game	Publisher	Last week
1	Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II	Activision	2
2	Grand Theft Auto V	Rockstar Games	1
3	Fortnite	Epic Games	3
4	Minecraft	Xbox Game Studios	4
5	FIFA 23	Electronic Arts	5
6	Diablo IV	Blizzard Entertainment	7
7	Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege	Ubisoft	8
8	Exoprimal	Capcom Entertainment	6
9	ROBLOX	Roblox	9
10	Rocket League	Psyonix	10
11	Forza Horizon 5	Xbox Game Studios	11
12	Call of Duty: Black Ops II	Activision	17
13	Apex Legends	Electronic Arts	12
14	Overwatch 2	Blizzard Entertainment	13
15	Destiny 2	Bungie	14
16	NBA 2K23	2K Sports	15
17	Halo Infinite	Xbox Game Studios	16
18	Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009)	Activision	32
19	Call of Duty: Black Ops III	Activision	24
20	Halo: The Master Chief Collection	Xbox Game Studios	18
21	Sea of Thieves	Xbox Game Studios	26
22	Call of Duty: Black Ops	Activision	35
23	Red Dead Redemption 2	Rockstar Games	20
24	Fall Guys	Epic Games	19
25	Madden NFL 23	Electronic Arts	25
26	Battlefield 2042	Electronic Arts	21
27	MLB The Show 23	MLB	23
28	Dead by Daylight	505 Games	22
29	EA SPORTS UFC 4	Electronic Arts	27
30	Merge & Blade	Magic Cube	-
31	Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War	Activision	30
32	Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3	Activision	-
33	PUBG: Battlegrounds	KRAFTON	33
34	New Super Lucky's Tale	Playful Studios	-
35	Mortal Kombat 11	Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment	34
36	For Honor	Ubisoft	37
37	The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition	Bethesda Softworks	36
38	Elden Ring	Bandai Namco Entertainment	RE
39	Need for Speed Unbound	Electronic Arts	31
40	Gang Beasts	Double Fine	40

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.

Chart

Written by Heidi Nicholas

Heidi tends to lean towards indie games, RPGs, and open-world games on Xbox, and when not playing Disney Dreamlight Valley, happily installs every new wholesome game that appears on Xbox Game Pass, before diving back into favorites like The Witcher 3. She's looking forward to Age of Mythology Retold, Everwild, Fable, and Avowed on the Xbox horizon. Heidi graduated with an MA in English Literature before joining the TrueAchievements team.