January is at all times a quiet month for video video games, and 2025 was no exception. With just one new recreation launch cracking the highest 20 and the predictable domination of Call of Duty, there’s little to crow about from final month… besides, maybe, what could also be a comeback story for one in all final 12 months’s alleged gross sales disappointments: Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth.
Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth debuted February 2024 to No.2 on Circana’s charts, which rank video video games by greenback gross sales within the U.S. It dropped to No.7 the next month, and completed out the 12 months at No.17. While these numbers are respectable, post-launch there have been quite a few questions on whether or not or not the sport had achieved nicely sufficient for Square Enix’s tastes, and even particularly nicely compared to different main RPGs in the identical 12 months like Dragon’s Dogma 2 or its predecessor Final Fantasy 7: Remake. Square Enix in the end got here out saying the sport failed to satisfy its gross sales expectations, and by no means even introduced a gross sales determine, suggesting it hadn’t achieved nicely sufficient to brag about.
But notably, Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth launched as a platform-exclusive on PS5, and exclusives normally face an uphill battle in comparison with cross-platform releases with regards to gross sales. As of January 2025, Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth is unique no extra, lastly debuting on Steam and capturing as much as No.3 on the Circana charts for the month from No.56 in December. The Final Fantasy 7: Remake & Rebirth Twin Pack equally rose from No.265 in December to No.16 in January because of the Steam launch.
That’s not all. Circana analyst Mat Piscatella pointed out on Bluesky earlier this month that Rebirth had a “improbable” Steam launch: “Across bodily & tracked digital, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth was the best-selling recreation of the week ending Jan twenty fifth within the US market ($ gross sales), whereas the FFVII Remake & Rebirth Twin Pack ranked third.”
Now that is simply the U.S., however it’s probably that is emblematic of comparable gross sales overseas, which when mixed may sign to Square Enix that change is required. This success inevitably invitations hypothesis that swelling gross sales because of a PC launch might shift the corporate’s plans for future Final Fantasy releases to a cross-platform launch. I requested Piscatella for his opinion on the scenario, and here is what he stated:
“I imply it is exhausting for me to say what affect the Steam launch has on writer notion of general title success. That’s topic to all types of inner planning and expectations I’m not aware about, after all. But purely taking a look at client response, it was an excellent launch month on Steam. This launch does present one more benchmark that reveals releasing on PC makes a ton of sense at this level no matter style or historic launch methods.
“For third occasion publishers, it is trying more durable and more durable to launch completely on a single platform with out vital incentives offered by the platform holder.”
We’ll simply have to attend and see what Square Enix’s response is at its subsequent related earnings name…in May. Stay tuned.
As for the remainder of the charts, it is going to shock nobody that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was the best-selling recreation of the month once more, adopted by Madden NFL 25. The solely new launch cracking the highest 20 in January was Donkey Kong Country: Returns on Nintendo Switch, which reached No.8 purely on the premise of bodily gross sales (Nintendo doesn’t share digital gross sales information for its eshop).
Also notable was the return of It Takes Two to the highest 20, in spot No.20. There’s no single purpose for this, Piscatella instructed me. “There has been promotion taking place through the month, together with the final week of Jan on each the PlayStation retailer and eShop,” he stated. “But actually, It Takes Two had fairly regular gross sales all month. But it was in December that It Takes Two actually began its newest rally with each gross sales and engagement upticks that prolonged into January.”
Notably, a lot of the promotion for It Takes Two comes forward of the discharge of Hazelight Studios’ subsequent recreation, Split Fiction, releasing in March.
Overall, video games spending numbers truly look a bit unhappy in January in comparison with final January, however there’s one potential purpose for that. This 12 months’s monitoring interval for January was 4 weeks lengthy, whereas 2024’s January was 5 weeks lengthy, in order that’s a complete additional week to earn a living. But because of this, general spending was down 15% to $4.5 billion for the month this 12 months (it was 0.3% forward of January 2023’s four-week interval). Accessories spending was down 28% year-over-year.
Content spending was down 12% in comparison with final 12 months, with console content material down 35%. Hardware spending was down 45%. PS5 {hardware} spending was down 38% 12 months over 12 months, Xbox Series was down 50%, and Switch was down 53%. PS5 was the best-selling {hardware} of the month in {dollars} and items, with the Xbox Series second in {hardware} spending, and Switch barely second in unit gross sales.
The high 20 best-selling video games within the U.S. for the month of January 2025, based mostly on greenback gross sales:
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
- Madden NFL 25
- Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth
- EA Sports FC 25
- Minecraft*
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
- EA Sports College Football 25
- Donkey Kong Country Returns*
- Hogwarts Legacy
- Sonic Generations
- Helldivers II
- Astro Bot
- Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero
- Super Mario Party Jamboree*
- Elden Ring
- Final Fantasy VII Remake & Rebirth Twin Pack
- Mario Kart 8*
- The Crew: Motorfest
- UFC 5
- It Takes Two
* Indicates that some or all digital gross sales should not included in Circana’s information. Some publishers, together with Nintendo and Take-Two, don’t share sure digital information for this report.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can discover her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a narrative tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
