January 2025 marked another quiet month in the video game industry, with only a single new release making it into the top 20 best-sellers. The month was dominated by familiar titles, particularly Call of Duty, but the real story lies with the resurgence of Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth.

Launched in February 2024, Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth initially secured the No.2 spot on Circana's charts, which rank games by dollar sales in the U.S. However, its ranking slipped to No.7 in March and ended the year at No.17. Despite these respectable figures, Square Enix expressed disappointment, suggesting the game fell short of their sales expectations and never disclosed specific sales numbers.

A key turning point came in January 2025 when Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth expanded beyond its initial PS5 exclusivity and debuted on Steam. This move propelled it to No.3 on the Circana charts for the month, a significant jump from its No.56 position in December. The Final Fantasy 7: Remake & Rebirth Twin Pack also saw a surge, climbing from No.265 to No.16.

Circana analyst Mat Piscatella highlighted the game's "fantastic" Steam launch, noting that across physical and tracked digital sales, Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth was the best-selling game in the U.S. for the week ending January 25th, with the Twin Pack ranking third. This success suggests a broader trend that could influence Square Enix's future release strategies.

Piscatella commented, "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. 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 have to wait until Square Enix's next earnings call in May to see how this influences their future plans.

In other news, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 retained its position as the best-selling game of January, followed by Madden NFL 25. The only new release to break into the top 20 was Donkey Kong Country: Returns on Nintendo Switch, which achieved No.8 based solely on physical sales, as Nintendo does not share digital sales data.

It Takes Two also made a notable return to the top 20, reaching No.20. Piscatella attributed this to ongoing promotions and steady sales throughout January, with a significant uptick starting in December. This resurgence is partly fueled by anticipation for Hazelight Studios' next game, Split Fiction, set to release in March.

Overall, January 2025 saw a decline in gaming industry spending compared to the previous year. The tracking period for January 2025 was four weeks long, compared to five weeks in 2024, which affected the figures. Total spending was down 15% to $4.5 billion for the month, with content spending down 12%, console content down 35%, and hardware spending down 45%. PS5 hardware spending dropped 38% year-over-year, Xbox Series by 50%, and Switch by 53%. Despite these declines, the PS5 remained the best-selling hardware in both dollars and units, with Xbox Series second in spending and Switch second in unit sales.

Here are the top 20 best-selling games in the U.S. for January 2025, based on dollar sales:

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
2. Madden NFL 25
3. Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth
4. EA Sports FC 25
5. Minecraft*
6. Marvel's Spider-Man 2
7. EA Sports College Football 25
8. Donkey Kong Country Returns*
9. Hogwarts Legacy
10. Sonic Generations
11. Helldivers II
12. Astro Bot
13. Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero
14. Super Mario Party Jamboree*
15. Elden Ring
16. Final Fantasy VII Remake & Rebirth Twin Pack
17. Mario Kart 8*
18. The Crew: Motorfest
19. UFC 5
20. 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.