2025 was stuffed with actually cool new recreation releases. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Hole Knight: Silksong, Demise Stranding 2, Ghost of Yourei, Blue Prince, Donkey Kong Bananza, I might go on and on. Nonetheless, it seems that almost all of gamers (not less than within the US) spent most of their time replaying previous hits, because the 5 hottest video games on PlayStation final yr have been precisely the identical because the earlier yr.
That is based on Circana analyst Mat Piscatella, who right this moment on Bluesky shared the highest 5 most performed video games on PlayStation within the US in 2025.
- fortnite
- name of obligation
- GTA V
- roblox
- minecraft
And for 2024:
- fortnite
- name of obligation
- GTA V
- roblox
- minecraft
(It is the identical photograph.)
The format will likely be (supposedly) completely different on Xbox, with Minecraft and Roblox reversed in 2025 and a barely extra difficult order in 2024. In first place is Name of Obligation, adopted by Fortnite, Minecraft, GTA V, and Roblox. However, uh… Identical 5 video games.
It is a fairly damning indictment of the present state of the {industry}. As Piscatella himself stated on Kinda Humorous Gamescast nearly a yr in the past, it is a pretty current development. He defined that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought on a surge in online game audiences, with huge numbers of individuals enjoying video games who had by no means performed earlier than. Because of this, most of the main gaming markets have successfully reached a cap on the variety of new gamers they will entice sooner or later, since everybody was already there.
On high of that, that restricted viewers performed fewer video games general. A part of the reason being just because video games are getting dearer. Reasonably than spending some huge cash making an attempt one thing new on a brand new platform, increasingly individuals are gravitating towards stay service video games they’re already aware of, the place they will spend a little bit cash on a enjoyable expertise on a platform they already personal.
However a few of that may be a pure results of the rise in stay companies. As Piscatella goes on to elucidate, the way in which the market used to work was that gamers would purchase one large new recreation, spend all their time on it, after which transfer on to the following one. However folks do not buy new video games anymore.
βIf we take the highest 10 month-to-month service video gamesβ¦on PlayStation and Xbox, 7 out of 10 individuals who activate their consoles play not less than considered one of these video games every month, and when it comes to complete play time, these 10 video games alone account for 40% of the full play time on the consoles every month.β
Piscatella additionally shared that on the time, Circana predicted that 30% of people that play video video games wouldn’t purchase a online game in 2025 (precise numbers for the total yr haven’t but been launched). An extra 18% consider they purchase new video games each six months or much less usually. Solely 12% of individuals purchase a recreation as soon as a month, and 4% purchase new video games extra usually.
“So what’s hurting essentially the most, when it comes to builders and publishers, are the video games which are truly concentrating on 16% of all gamers who’re very frequent patrons, whereas the overwhelming majority of gamers purchase one or two video games a yr and play Fornite, Minecraft, Roblox.”
Because of this, it is more durable than ever for model new video games to interrupt out. This has been a serious a part of the current wave of layoffs, studio closures, mission cancellations, and easily industry-wide devastation that has been reported within the {industry}, primarily in the US, over the previous few years.
Mr. Piscatella ended his Kinda Humorous presentation with one thing he has stated to me many occasions: “Fortnite is the largest competitor to new video video games.”
Circana plans to launch a full report on U.S. online game gross sales in 2025 later this month.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter at videogameaddicted. Do you’ve any story ideas? Ship it to rvalentine@videogameaddicted.com.