PS5 Best-Seller in the US in January, Donkey Kong Country Returns HD Debuts in 8th - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 21 February 2025 / 17,088 Views
The PlayStation 5 was once again the best-selling console in the US in January 2025 in terms of units sold and dollar sales, according to figures from Circana (formerly The NPD Group). Circana includes the dates for the four-week period of January 5 to February 1.
The Nintendo Switch came in second place in terms of units sold and in third in terms of dollar sales. The Xbox Series X|S came in third place in terms of units sold and second in dollar sales.
In terms of dollar sales, the PlayStation 5 is down 38 percent year-on-year, while the Xbox Series X|S is down 50 percent, and the Nintendo Switch is down 53 percent. It should be noted, January 2024 included five weeks, while this year included four weeks.
88 percent of Xbox Series X|S sales were digital SKUs as Microsoft shifted from the Xbox Series X with a disc drive to the Robot White Digital Edition. The Xbox Series X accounted for about half of all Xbox Series console sales for the month.
49 percent of PS5 sales were digital SKUs and the PS5 Pro has now fallen behind the pace of the PS4 Pro.
Overall spending on video games in January decreased 15 percent year-on-year from $5.32 billion to $4.51 billion. Spending on video game content decreased 12 percent from $4.68 billion to $4.12 billion, while video game hardware sales decreased 45 percent from $371 million to $205 million. Spending on accessories decreased 28 percent from $268 million to $194 million.
"January 2025 projected U.S. consumer spending on video game hardware, content and accessories fell 15% when compared to a year ago, to $4.5 billion, while finishing 0.3% ahead of January 2023’s $4.50B," said Circana Executive Director and Video Game Industry Analyst Mat Piscatella.
Non-mobile subscription spending grew 13 percent year-on-year and mobile spending grew two percent. However, this was not enough to offset console content spending, which fell 35 percent compared to year.
The Midnight Black DualSense controller was the best-selling gamepad in terms of dollar sales for January. the PlayStation Portal remains the best-selling accessory in terms of dollar sales for another.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was the best-selling game in January. It ranked first on the PlayStation charts and second on the Xbox charts. Call of Duty HQ was number one in monthly active users on the Xbox Series X|S and second on the PS5.
Following the release of the Steam version, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth shot up from 53rd to third place. The Final Fantasy VII Remake & Rebirth Twin Pack rose from 265th place to 16th place.
Donkey Kong Country Returns HD was the only new release in the top 20 this month as it debuted in eighth place. It should be noted Nintendo does not share digital sales.
Here are the top 20 best-selling games in terms of dollars for January 2025:
Here are the top 10 games played on the PlayStation 5 ranked by monthly active users:
Here are the top 10 games played on the Xbox Series X|S ranked by monthly active users:
Here are the top 10 games played on Steam ranked by monthly active users:
Here are the top 10 best-selling premium games on PlayStation platforms in January 2025:
Here are the top 10 best-selling premium games on Xbox platforms in January 2025:
Here are the top 10 best-selling premium games on Nintendo platforms in January 2025:
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Bluesky.
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Astro!
Keeps on winning!
So that's 4 weeks of 2025 vs 5 weeks of 2024. Right?
If that's the case, those big percentage drops makes sense.
My eyes must be deceiving me. In the Nintendo chart we have 4 3rd party games in the top 10? That has to a be a record in the last few years where it's been either all Nintendo or at most 2 3rd party games.
Also it seems Sonic X Shadow Generations is selling the most on Switch (which isn't surprising).
i just realized…Nintendo’s the publisher of Minecraft? Also, Hogwartz, Just Dance (somehow lol), and Sonic (if there’s a new release) almost always hit top ten in January. This isn’t anything super unusual, I don’t think?
