Unlocking AAA Game Success: Marketing Strategies That Made Hogwarts Legacy and Diablo IV Bestsellers

Best-selling AAA games owe their success as much to effective marketing strategy as any other factor. Games like Hogwarts Legacy, Diablo IV, and Starfield executed multi-step launch campaigns that catapulted them to become the best-sellers of 2023. In Sensor Tower’s State of AAA Gaming Advertising report, we dive into the biggest PC/console game launches in 2023 and what marketing strategies drove their success.

Hogwarts Legacy’s Huge Launch Campaign Helped it Become the Best Selling PC/Console Game of 2023

In a year packed with groundbreaking launches, Hogwarts Legacy was the best selling PC/console game of 2023 with 22 million copies by the end of the year. Aside from creating the fantasy fulfillment of a top worldwide IP, how did they achieve this success? Let’s take a look at their ad spend over time by channel.

When analyzing Hogwarts Legacy with Sensor Tower’s Pathmatics data, we can see three distinct phases: pre-order, launch, and secondary platform launches. During the pre-order phase, Hogwarts Legacy ran creative primarily on YouTube in August, October, and December of 2022. Pre-order first became available in August, with the October and December campaigns seeming to align with Halloween and Christmas. YouTube is the primary home of the gaming audience and its algorithm supports sustained engagement, allowing for these consecutive campaigns.

It’s interesting to note that Hogwarts Legacy also executed campaigns when the game was released on PS4 and Nintendo Switch respectively, two platforms the game did not launch on originally. Instead, Hogwarts Legacy chose to release on PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC only in 1Q2023, a period in which virtually no other AAA launch occurred.

We also gain insight into Hogwarts Legacy’s media mix. Warner Bros. Games leveraged a diverse set of channels at launch when compared to the pre-order campaigns: socials, OTT, and Twitch were some of the channels utilized in addition to mainstays YouTube and Facebook.

Diablo IV Tailored its Creative to the Audience of Different Social Channels

Following Hogwarts Legacy’s huge launch in 1Q2023, Diablov IV was the biggest launch in the second quarter of the year, and possibly the highest grossing PC/console game of 2023 if we take into account live services. With Pathmatics, we are able to dive into Diablo IV’s creative strategy by channel and launch phase.

Looking at the Diablo IV’s top creatives leading up to launch, we can see different strategies being applied to different networks. On TikTok, the top creative focused on gameplay footage with Billie Eilish’s “You Should see Me in a Crown” playing in the background to target TikTok’s younger audience. In contrast, social channels such as YouTube focused more on visually striking live action creative to catch their audience’s attention. By examining all of the creative used, we understand Diablo IV’s high level positioning. For example, the overall dark and sometimes disturbing themes signal a return to the darker atmosphere of Diablo IV, as opposed to the somewhat more mainstream fantasy of Diablo III. This positioning was reinforced by an early tagline: “Return to darkness.”

Call of Duty’s Back-to-Back Launches Allows Us to See How Their Strategy Has Evolved

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III was another one of the biggest launches of 2023, closely following on the tail of Modern Warfare II, which launched just a year before. How did these two launches differ?

By comparing annual sequel launches, we can get an idea of the lessons these fast moving teams are learning. For example, by comparing Modern Warfare III’s ad spend by format for each channel vs Modern Warfare II, we can spot an interesting trend: Modern Warfare III diversified its ad formats compared to Modern Warfare II. This is particularly apparent on YouTube, where Modern Warfare III significantly stepped up ad formats outside of the 15 second length. Apparently, the CoD team believes there’s value to be had from running a more varied set of ad formats.

Want to See More? Read the Full Report.

Download the full State of AAA Gaming Advertising report for free. Inside, we dive into the marketing strategies of the biggest launches of each quarter in 2023, take a closer look at the US PC/Console digital advertising landscape, and offer insight into the biggest and latest gaming trends, such as live services, transmedia IP, and brand partnerships.