In January, the revenue of the US gaming market amounted to $4.7 billion, and Final Fantasy VII Remake jumped 216 positions in the chart
The Circana analyst Mat Piscatella shared the first report on the state of the American market in 2026. Here are the key points.
- In January 2026, American consumers spent a total of $4.69 billion on video games, hardware, and accessories. This represents a 3% increase from the previous year.
- The majority of spending was on video games, totaling $4.3 billion. Spending on console and PC titles increased by 2% and 1% respectively, while mobile revenue declined by 1%.
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 remained the leader of the sales charts* in terms of dollar revenue. The only new entry was Code Vein II, debuting at the 11th spot.
- Final Fantasy VII Remake showed significant growth, climbing to the 9th place (+216 positions), largely due to the release of the Nintendo Switch 2 version. Helldivers 2 also returned to the top 20.
- Sales of gaming hardware continued their traditional decline, dropping to $248 million (-16% year-over-year). Despite a 17% decrease, PlayStation 5 remained the leader both in revenue and units sold, followed by the Switch 2. Spending on the Xbox Series decreased by 27%.
*Recall that not all new releases are available on disc, and Circana receives digital sales data only from a limited list of major publishers and platform holders. Therefore, indie projects or titles from smaller studios rarely appear in the charts.
Top 20 Best-Selling Games in the USA in 2025 According to Circana:
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
- NBA 2K26
- Madden NFL 26
- Minecraft^
- Battlefield 6
- EA Sports FC 26
- GTA V
- Red Dead Redemption 2
- Final Fantasy VII Remake
- Forza Horizon 5
- Code Vein II (new title)
- Ghost of Yotei
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
- EA Sports College Football 26
- Helldivers 2
- Pokemon Legends: Z-A*
- Split Fiction
- Elden Ring
- Flight Simulator 2024
- Fallout 4
* — excluding digital sales.
^ — excluding digital sales on Nintendo Switch.