January is at all times a quiet month for video video games, and 2025 was no exception. With just one new sport launch cracking the highest 20 and the predictable domination of Name of Responsibility, 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 in the U.S. It dropped to No.7 the next month, and completed out the 12 months at No.17. Whereas these numbers are respectable, post-launch there have been quite a few questions on whether or not or not the sport had accomplished effectively sufficient for Sq. Enix’s tastes, and even particularly effectively in comparability to different main RPGs in the identical 12 months like Dragon’s Dogma 2 or its predecessor Final Fantasy 7: Remake. Sq. Enix in the end got here out saying the sport failed to meet its gross sales expectations, and by no means even introduced a gross sales determine, suggesting it hadn’t accomplished effectively sufficient to brag about.
However notably, Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth launched as a platform-exclusive on PS5, and exclusives often face an uphill battle in contrast to cross-platform releases when it comes to gross sales. As of January 2025, Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth is unique no extra, lastly debuting on Steam and taking pictures up to 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 thanks to the Steam launch.
That is not all. Circana analyst Mat Piscatella pointed out on Bluesky earlier this month that Rebirth had a “improbable” Steam launch: “Throughout bodily & tracked digital, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth was the best-selling sport of the week ending Jan twenty fifth in the US market ($ gross sales), whereas the FFVII Remake & Rebirth Twin Pack ranked third.”
Now that is simply the U.S., however it’s seemingly that is emblematic of comparable gross sales overseas, which when mixed might sign to Sq. Enix that change is required. This success inevitably invitations hypothesis that swelling gross sales thanks to a PC launch could shift the corporate’s plans for future Final Fantasy releases to a cross-platform launch. I requested Piscatella for his opinion on the state of affairs, and here is what he stated:
“I imply it is onerous for me to say what influence the Steam launch has on writer notion of total title success. That is topic to every kind of inside planning and expectations I am not privy to, after all. However purely wanting 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 get together publishers, it is wanting more durable and more durable to launch completely on a single platform with out vital incentives supplied by the platform holder.”
We’ll simply have to wait and see what Sq. Enix’s response is at its subsequent related earnings name…in Could. Keep tuned.
As for the remainder of the charts, it would shock nobody that Name of Responsibility: Black Ops 6 was the best-selling sport of the month once more, adopted by Madden NFL 25. The one new launch cracking the highest 20 in January was Donkey Kong Nation: Returns on Nintendo Change, which reached No.8 purely on the premise of bodily gross sales (Nintendo doesn’t share digital gross sales information for its eshop).
Additionally notable was the return of It Takes Two to the highest 20, in spot No.20. There isn’t any single cause for this, Piscatella advised me. “There was promotion occurring throughout the month, together with the final week of Jan on each the PlayStation retailer and eShop,” he stated. “However actually, It Takes Two had fairly regular gross sales all month. However 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 sport, Cut up Fiction, releasing in March.
General, video games spending numbers really look a bit unhappy in January in contrast to final January, however there’s one potential cause 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 an entire additional week to earn money. However in consequence, total 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). Equipment spending was down 28% year-over-year.
Content material spending was down 12% in contrast to 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 Sequence was down 50%, and Change was down 53%. PS5 was the best-selling {hardware} of the month in {dollars} and items, with the Xbox Sequence second in {hardware} spending, and Change barely second in unit gross sales.
The highest 20 best-selling video games in the U.S. for the month of January 2025, based mostly on greenback gross sales:
- Name of Responsibility: Black Ops 6
- Madden NFL 25
- Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth
- EA Sports activities FC 25
- Minecraft*
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
- EA Sports activities School Soccer 25
- Donkey Kong Nation Returns*
- Hogwarts Legacy
- Sonic Generations
- Helldivers II
- Astro Bot
- Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero
- Tremendous Mario Social gathering Jamboree*
- Elden Ring
- Final Fantasy VII Remake & Rebirth Twin Pack
- Mario Kart 8*
- The Crew: Motorfest
- UFC 5
- It Takes Two
* Signifies that some or all digital gross sales are usually 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’ll find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Obtained a narrative tip? Ship it to rvalentine@ign.com.