Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth Climbs to No.3 in U.S. Charts Post-Launch on Steam %v

January 2025 proved to be a relatively subdued month for the video game industry, with only one new release making it into the top 20 best-sellers. However, amidst the usual suspects like Call of Duty and Madden NFL, there's a compelling narrative unfolding with Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, hinting at a potential resurgence.

Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, which initially launched in February 2024 as a PS5 exclusive, entered the market at No.2 on Circana's charts. Despite a strong debut, its sales tapered off, slipping to No.7 the next month and concluding the year at No.17. Square Enix expressed disappointment in the game's performance, failing to meet their expectations and not releasing any sales figures.

The game's fortunes took a dramatic turn in January 2025 when it became available on Steam. This move propelled Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth from No.56 in December to No.3 on the Circana charts. The Final Fantasy 7: Remake & Rebirth Twin Pack also saw a significant rise, jumping from No.265 to No.16. Circana analyst Mat Piscatella highlighted Rebirth's "fantastic" Steam launch, noting it was the best-selling game of the week ending January 25th in the U.S., with the Twin Pack ranking third.

This success on Steam suggests that a multi-platform release could be beneficial for future Final Fantasy titles. Piscatella commented, "Releasing on PC makes a ton of sense at this point regardless of genre or historical release strategies." He also noted the increasing difficulty for third-party publishers to justify single-platform exclusivity without substantial incentives from platform holders.

We'll have to wait until Square Enix's next earnings call in May to see how this influences their strategy moving forward.

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 title to break into the top 20 was Donkey Kong Country: Returns on Nintendo Switch, which reached No.8 based solely on physical sales. It Takes Two also made a notable return to the top 20 at No.20, driven by ongoing promotions and anticipation for Hazelight Studios' upcoming game, Split Fiction.

Despite these highlights, overall spending in January 2025 was down compared to the previous year. The tracking period for January 2025 was four weeks long, compared to five weeks in 2024, which contributed to a 15% drop in total spending to $4.5 billion. Content spending fell by 12%, with console content down 35%, while hardware spending decreased by 45%. PS5 led hardware sales in both dollars and units, followed by Xbox Series in spending and Switch in units.

Here are the top 20 best-selling games in the U.S. for January 2025, ranked by 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.