The first 2026 knowledge from Circana has landed, revealing how the online game trade fared in January 2026 and the yr up to now. One takeaway to think about is that software program gross sales are rising, however not by a lot, and primarily fueled by spending on subscription providers in a month that didn’t have many high-profile new releases.
Circana’s US report mentioned whole spending on online game content material in January 2026 rose by 3% year-over-year to $4.3 billion. This uptick was pushed primarily by subscription spending, which rose by 23% year-over-year. In the meantime, spending on console video games and PC video games solely rose very modestly, at 2% and 1%, respectively. Moreover, spending on cell video games fell 1% throughout January 2026.
The Circana report didn’t single out any particular subscription providers, however there are numerous in play at the moment. A few of them embody Xbox Game Cross, PlayStation Plus, Nintendo Swap On-line, Apple Arcade, Nvidia GeForce Now, EA Play, Game Membership, Humble Bundle, Prime Gaming, and Ubisoft+, simply to call a number of.
Name of Responsibility: Black Ops 7 was the No. 1 best-selling recreation in January 2026 in the US, retaining its high spot from December 2025. Code Vein II was the one new launch in January to make the highest 20 charts, touchdown at No. 11 general.
January 2026 had numerous new releases, however not numerous high-profile titles that one may anticipate to stand up the gross sales charts. This might assist clarify why software program gross sales in the US for January 2026 got here in smooth.
The greatest month-over-month mover, in the meantime, was Sq. Enix’s Closing Fantasy VII: Remake–it surged from No. 225 in December 2025 to No. 9 in January 2026. This was as a result of launch of the Swap 2 and Xbox Sequence X|S variations in January 2026, Circana mentioned.
Past spending on video games, Circana reported that spending on gaming {hardware} elevated by 16% year-over-year, rising to $248 million for January 2026. The PS5 noticed a 17% decline in gross sales, with Xbox Sequence X|S falling by 27%, and Swap 1 lowering by 79%. The Swap 2 clearly did very effectively in January 2026, as a result of it offset all of these year-over-year losses for the opposite platforms to assist enhance whole {hardware} spending in January 2026 by 16%.
The PS5 was, nonetheless, the No. 1 {hardware} platform in January 2026 for unit and greenback gross sales, regardless of the year-over-year declines. Swap 2 was No. 2 for unit and greenback gross sales.
In phrases of whole spending on video games in the US for January 2026–spanning video games, {hardware}, and accessories–that got here to $4.698 billion, a rise of three% year-over-year.