January is always a quiet month for video games, and 2025 was no exception. With only one new game release cracking the top 20 and the predictable domination of Call of Duty, there’s little to crow about from last month… except, perhaps, what may be a comeback story for one of last year’s alleged sales disappointments: Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth.
Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth debuted February 2024 to No.2 on Circana’s charts, which rank video games by dollar sales in the U.S. It dropped to No.7 the following month, and finished out the year at No.17. While those numbers are respectable, post-launch there were numerous questions about whether or not the game had done well enough for Square Enix’s tastes, or even especially well in comparison to other major RPGs in the same year like Dragon’s Dogma 2 or its predecessor Final Fantasy 7: Remake. Square Enix ultimately came out saying the game failed to meet its sales expectations, and never even announced a sales figure, suggesting it hadn’t done well enough to brag about.
But notably, Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth launched as a platform-exclusive on PS5, and exclusives usually face an uphill battle compared to cross-platform releases when it comes to sales. As of January 2025, Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth is exclusive no more, finally debuting on Steam and shooting up to No.3 on the Circana charts for the month from No.56 in December. The Final Fantasy 7: Remake & Rebirth Twin Pack similarly rose from No.265 in December to No.16 in January thanks to the Steam release.
That’s not all. Circana analyst Mat Piscatella pointed out on Bluesky earlier this month that Rebirth had a “fantastic” Steam launch: “Across physical & tracked digital, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth was the best-selling game of the week ending Jan 25th in the US market ($ sales), while the FFVII Remake & Rebirth Twin Pack ranked 3rd.”
Now that’s just the U.S., but it’s likely this is emblematic of similar sales abroad, which when combined could signal to Square Enix that change is needed. This success inevitably invites speculation that swelling sales thanks to a PC launch may shift the company’s plans for future Final Fantasy releases to a cross-platform launch. I asked Piscatella for his opinion on the situation, and here’s what he said:
“I mean it’s hard for me to say what impact the Steam release has on publisher perception of overall title success. That’s subject to all kinds of internal planning and expectations I’m not privy to, of course. But purely looking at consumer response, it was a very good launch month on Steam. This launch does provide yet another benchmark that shows releasing on PC makes a ton of sense at this point regardless of genre or historical release strategies.
“For 3rd party publishers, it’s looking harder and harder to release exclusively on a single platform without significant incentives provided by the platform holder.”
We’ll just have to wait and see what Square Enix’s reaction is at its next relevant earnings call…in May. Stay tuned.
As for the rest of the charts, it will surprise no one that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was the best-selling game of the month again, followed by Madden NFL 25. The only new release cracking the top 20 in January was Donkey Kong Country: Returns on Nintendo Switch, which reached No.8 purely on the basis of physical sales (Nintendo does not share digital sales data for its eshop).
Also notable was the return of It Takes Two to the top 20, in spot No.20. There’s no single reason for this, Piscatella told me. “There has been promotion happening during the month, including the last week of Jan on both the PlayStation store and eShop,” he said. “But really, It Takes Two had pretty steady sales all month. But it was in December that It Takes Two really started its latest rally with both sales and engagement upticks that extended into January.”
Notably, much of the promotion for It Takes Two comes ahead of the release of Hazelight Studios’ next game, Split Fiction, releasing in March.
Overall, games spending numbers actually look a bit sad in January compared to last January, but there’s one potential reason for that. This year’s tracking period for January was four weeks long, while 2024’s January was five weeks long, so that’s a whole extra week to make money. But as a result, overall spending was down 15% to $4.5 billion for the month this year (it was 0.3% ahead of January 2023’s four-week period). Accessories spending was down 28% year-over-year.
Content spending was down 12% compared to last year, with console content down 35%. Hardware spending was down 45%. PS5 hardware spending was down 38% year over year, Xbox Series was down 50%, and Switch was down 53%. PS5 was the best-selling hardware of the month in dollars and units, with the Xbox Series second in hardware spending, and Switch barely second in unit sales.
The top 20 best-selling games in the U.S. for the month of January 2025, based on dollar 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 sales are not included in Circana’s data. Some publishers, including Nintendo and Take-Two, do not share certain digital data for this report.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected].
Add comment