Circana has released its US gaming industry sales data for January 2025, and given that it’s a month without many significant releases, the number one seller for the month probably won’t surprise you.
As noted in a Bluesky thread by Circana’s Mat Piscatella, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is once again the month’s biggest-selling game across all platforms. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the game was also 2024’s top-selling title by Circana’s reckoning.
In second place for the all-format chart is Madden NFL 25, which isn’t surprising given the colossal commercial success of that franchise and EA Sports College Football, while Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is in third, bolstered by its January PC release. Perhaps now, it can strive to meet Square Enix’s expectations.
Rounding out the all-format top five are EA Sports FC 25, which underperformed compared to EA’s expectations, and Minecraft, which probably couldn’t be said to have underperformed by any expectations in the known universe.
When it comes to specific formats, Black Ops 6 tops the PlayStation chart for January, while Madden NFL 25 tops the Xbox chart. As always, the Switch is dancing to its own tune; Nintendo’s chart is dominated by Donkey Kong Country Returns.
As for player engagement – that is, games on each platform ranked by monthly active users – Fortnite is top of the chart on PlayStation, while Call of Duty tops Xbox’s chart. Marvel Rivals, which recently hit 40 million players, is number one on Steam.
Spending as a whole across the industry fell by 15% compared to the same period last year, although as Piscatella points out, January 2025 consists of four weeks rather than last year’s five-week tracking period.
Hardware-wise, the PS5 emerged victorious once again in January, beating out the Xbox and Switch in units and dollar sales. Xbox was second in dollar sales, while Switch came second in units.
As ever, Piscatella’s full thread is well worth a look if you want to see some other stats. You can check the thread out here.
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