It was an understandably quiet January in the U.S. video games market, with only a few new releases and a bit of a comedown from a busy vacation season leaving Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 once more the best-selling sport of the month, and the PlayStation 5 on prime for consoles.
The PS5 led {hardware} in each unit and greenback gross sales, with the Nintendo Change 2 taking second in each, in response to evaluation shared by Circana senior director and analyst Mat Piscatella. General {hardware} spending was up 16% year-over-year, with a rise in Change 2 spending (admittedly a rise over nothing, because the Change 2 wasn’t out final yr) offsetting declines in spending on PS5 (down 17%), Xbox Collection (down 27%) and Change 1 (down a whopping however comprehensible 79%). Equipment spending was down 5% to $185 million.
In content material, spending up was up 3% year-over-year to $4.3 billion, largely pushed by a 23% improve in subscription spending. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 was as soon as once more the best-selling sport of the month, adopted by NBA 2K26 once more in the No.2 spot, and Madden NFL 26 rising from No.4 final month to No.3 in January. Battlefield 6, final month’s No.3, dropped to No. 5 in January.
The one new sport getting into the highest 20 for January was Code Vein II, which got here in at No. 11. We did see Last Fantasy 7: Remake leap from No.225 final month to No.9 for January, because of its Xbox Collection and Nintendo Change 2 releases. Fallout 4 additionally made a huge bounce from No.68 to No.20, probably thanks each to Season 2 of the Fallout TV present coinciding with a main drop in worth on Steam on the finish of the month.
Moreover, Piscatella tells IGN that outdoors the highest 20, each Fable Anniversary and Animal Crossing: New Horizons noticed vital gross sales bumps. Within the former’s case, this was because of the brand new trailer for the upcoming Fable sport, and in the latter’s, because of the DLC and Change 2 launch.
General, complete gaming spending reached $4.7 billion, up 3% year-over-year. Not precisely a thrilling begin to 2026, however when has January ever been an explosive month for video games?
January 2026 U.S. High 20 Finest-Promoting Video games:
(*5*)
* Signifies that some or all digital gross sales should not included in Circana’s knowledge. Some publishers, together with Nintendo, don’t share sure digital knowledge for this report.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Obtained a story tip? Ship it to rvalentine@ign.com.