Assassin's Creed Shadows Achieves Third Largest US Launch Month in Series History | US Monthly Charts
In March 2025, Assassin's Creed Shadows emerged as the United States' top-selling video game, according to Circana, while there was a 25% decline in spending on gaming hardware compared to the same month last year.
The newest installment in Ubisoft's franchise ranks as the second-highest seller of 2025 in the US, trailing only Monster Hunter Wilds. It led in game sales in dollar terms on Xbox, while taking second place on both PlayStation and Steam. Mat Piscatella from Circana highlighted on BlueSky that it marked the series' third-largest launch month by dollar sales, trailing only Assassin's Creed 3 (2012) and Assassin's Creed Valhalla (2020).
Other notable entries on the US sales charts included MLB: The Show 25, which ranked second but omitted digital sales for the Switch and Xbox. WWE 2K25 took fourth position, and EA/Hazelight's cooperative title, Split Fiction, secured fifth place.
Further down the rankings, anime-inspired Bleach: Rebirth of Souls reached ninth position, and a remaster of Nintendo's Xenoblade Chronicles X achieved 17th place with physical sales only. A remastered collection of the first two games from Konami's Suikoden series debuted at 18th place.
In the mobile gaming sphere, Sensor Tower's Samuel Aune stated the market shrank compared to March 2024. However, the top ten mobile games were still performing well. Monopoly Go led in consumer spending, with Candy Crush Saga advancing two spots, and Last War: Survival dropping slightly. Pokémon Go saw significant improvement, moving up to sixth place due to a 42% increase in spending, attributed to the Unova Tour event. Coin Master also had notable growth, climbing to seventh after a 15% rise.
Total spending on gaming fell 6% compared to the previous year, reaching approximately $4.7 billion in March, while year-to-date expenditures of $13.7 billion are down 12% from 2024. The hardware segment noted a decline, similar to February, with March's spending at $286 million, making it the weakest March since 2019.
Despite a 26% reduction in hardware revenue year-over-year, the PlayStation 5 continues to lead in terms of spending. Xbox Series sales fell by 9%, whereas Nintendo Switch sales decreased by 37%. Notably, digital-only models constituted 75% of Xbox Series and 50% of PlayStation 5 sales for the year up to this point.
Listed below are the top 20 best-selling games from February 2 to March 1, 2025, provided by Circana:
| Rank | Last month rank | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | NEW | Assassin's Creed Shadows |
| 2 | NEW | MLB: The Show 25^^ |
| 3 | 1 | Monster Hunter Wilds |
| 4 | NEW | WWE 2K25 |
| 5 | NEW | Split Fiction |
| 6 | 6 | Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 |
| 7 | 4 | PGA Tour 2K25 |
| 8 | 5 | NBA 2K25 |
| 9 | NEW | Bleach: Rebirth of Souls |
| 10 | 2 | Kingdom Come: Deliverance II |
| 11 | 11 | Minecraft^ |
| 12 | 9 | Grand Theft Auto V |
| 13 | 12 | EA Sports FC 25 |
| 14 | 14 | Red Dead Redemption 2 |
| 15 | 10 | Madden NFL 25 |
| 16 | 18 | Elden Ring |
| 17 | NEW | Xenoblade Chronicles X* |
| 18 | NEW | Suikoden I and II HD Remaster: Gate Rune & Dunan Unification Wars |
| 19 | 13 | Marvel's Spider-Man 2 |
| 20 | 16 | EA Sports College Football 25 |
^Digital sales on Nintendo platforms not included.
^^Digital sales on Nintendo and Xbox platforms not included.
*Digital sales not accounted for on highlighted titles.