Circana: The US gaming market continues declining in April'25
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered returned to outperform the original by far.
Overall market status
The U.S. gaming market continues its negative trend from recent months. Sales in April reached $4.1 billion, down 3% year-over-year.
Content sales declined by 2% YoY to $3.7 billion. Growth was seen in non-mobile subscriptions (+18% YoY) and digital game sales on consoles (+16% YoY).
Consumer spending on gaming hardware fell 8% YoY to $186 million, marking the lowest dollar amount since July 2020.
PlayStation 5 dollar sales dropped 5% in April, but the system still leads in both revenue and units sold. Nintendo Switch sales fell 37%, while Xbox Series S|X grew by 8%.
Spending on accessories in April declined 2% YoY to $166 million. DualSense Midnight Black was the top accessory of the month.
In the first four months of 2025, total industry revenue is 8% behind the same period in 2024. Aggregate user spending for this period reached $17.8 billion.
Game Sales
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered was the best-selling game in April. Forza Horizon 5 (boosted by its PlayStation 5 launch) ranked second, and MLB: The Show 25 was third (digital sales on Nintendo and Xbox not included).
Oblivion Remastered immediately became the third-best-selling game of 2025. It sold more copies in April 2025 than the original did in its first 15 months after the 2006 launch, and earned more revenue in less than a month than the original did in its first 14 months.
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Four of the top five best-selling games in April in the U.S. were published by Microsoft.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle saw a significant sales jump, leaping from 118th to 6th place, thanks to the PlayStation 5 release.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 did not make the top 20. The absence is due to the publisher not providing digital sales data to Circana; physical sales placed it at 22nd on PlayStation.
Top mobile projects in the U.S. in April were MONOPOLY GO!, Royal Match, and Candy Crush Saga.
Mobile game revenue dipped slightly in March, but leaders continued to perform well. Gossip Harbor: Merge & Story was the fastest-growing, with revenue up 9.8% in April.
Platform Rankings
Five of the ten best-selling PlayStation games in April in the U.S. were published by Microsoft. This benefits both companies: Microsoft expands its audience, while Sony profits from commissions and strengthens its platform position.
Call of Duty HQ led MAU (monthly active users) on both PlayStation and Xbox. RoboCop: Rogue City and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre saw strong MAU growth due to their inclusion in PS Plus.
On Xbox, The Elder Scrolls: Online jumped to 2nd place in sales, and Minecraft to 3rd.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered entered the Xbox MAU ranking, having launched day one on Game Pass.
On Nintendo, the only new top-10 entry was The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy; otherwise, the chart was stable.
Steam’s top MAU titles were Schedule I, R.E.P.O., and Counter-Strike 2. Oblivion Remastered debuted at 5th, and Path of Exile II performed well in April.