I would put BG3 easily in the top10 of most anticipated games in 2023. Even if one does not know the franchise, the amount of articles and mentions in the last weeks was a good sign. Especially as it was an Early Access-Game, and not something that just drop from a void. So people already knew for a while that it will be pretty good. But I guess, especially because of this, it was also easy to filter out if one is not in the bubble.