Jump to content
  • Sign Up
×
×
  • Create New...

[STEAM] Top Five Most-Played Games on PlayStation and Xbox in 2025 in the US Were the Same as in 2024


Recommended Posts

  • Diamond Member
This is the hidden content, please
2025 was bursting with
This is the hidden content, please
: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Death Stranding 2, Ghost of Yōtei, Blue Prince, Donkey Kong Bananza, I could go on. And yet, it seems like the vast majority of players (at least in the US) spent most of their time playing the old hits on repeat, because the five most popular games on PlayStation last year were exactly the same as the year before.

This comes from Circana analyst Mat Piscatella, who
This is the hidden content, please
the top five most-played games in the US on PlayStation for 2025:

  1. Fortnite
  2. Call of Duty
  3. GTA V
  4. Roblox
  5. Minecraft
And for 2024:

  1. Fortnite
  2. Call of Duty
  3. GTA V
  4. Roblox
  5. Minecraft
(
This is the hidden content, please
.)

The layout is different (I guess) on Xbox, with Minecraft and Roblox flipped for 2025, and a slightly more complicated order for 2024: Call of Duty at No. 1, then Fortnite, Minecraft, GTA V, Roblox. But uh, same five games.

It's a pretty damning indictment of the current state of the industry. As Piscatella said himself almost a year ago on the
This is the hidden content, please
, this is a fairly recent trend. As he explains, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted a surge in the video game audience, with huge numbers of people playing games who never had before. As a result, many of the major gaming markets effectively reached a cap on how many new players they can obtain in future years, because everyone was already there.

On top of that, that capped audience is now playing a smaller number of games overall. Some of that is just because games are getting more expensive. More people are gravitating toward live service games they're already familiar with where they can spend smaller amounts of money for a fun experience on a platform they already own, rather than spend larger amounts of money to try new things on new platforms.

But some of that is simply a natural consequence of the rise of live service. As Piscatella continues to explain, the way the market used to work is that players would buy one big new game, spend all their time on that, then move onto the next one. But people just aren't buying new games anymore.

"If you take the top ten service games every month...on PlayStation and Xbox, seven out of every ten people that turn on their console will play at least one of those games every month, and in terms of total time they're taking, those ten games alone every month take up 40% of total playtime on the consoles."

Piscatella also shares that at the time, Circana expected 30% of people that play video games would not buy a video game in 2025 (the actual numbers for the full year haven't been released just yet). A further 18% would purchase a new game every six months or less frequently. Only 12% buy a game once a month, and 4% buy new games more often than that.

"So when we're talking about the developers and publishers who are being hurt the most, are the games that are really targeting this 16% of total players that are purchasing very frequently, while the vast majority of players are buying a game or two a year, and they're playing Fornite, Minecraft, and Roblox."

The result is that it's harder than ever for brand new games to break through, which has been a major part of the recent wave of layoffs, studio closures, project cancelations, and just general industry devasation that
This is the hidden content, please
primarily in the US industry for the last couple of years.

Piscatella concluded that Kinda Funny presentation with a sentence he's said to me many times, and continues to say: "The biggest competitor to any new video game is Fortnite."

Circana is expected to release its full report on US video game sales in 2025 later this month.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected].

This is the hidden content, please

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Vote for the server

    To vote for this server you must login.

    Jim Carrey Flirting GIF

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

Important Information

Privacy Notice: We utilize cookies to optimize your browsing experience and analyze website traffic. By consenting, you acknowledge and agree to our Cookie Policy, ensuring your privacy preferences are respected.