Circana: The U.S. Gaming Market in December'25 + Full-Year 2025 Numbers
Battlefield 6 is the best-selling game of the year for the first time in the series history.
Market
By the end of 2025, the U.S. video game market reached $60.7 billion (+1.4% YoY).
In December 2025, consumers spent $7.765 billion on games and gaming products (+3% YoY).
Spending on game content grew 3% in December to $5.933 billion.
Consumer spending on subscriptions grew 24% YoY; PC, cloud gaming, and VR (excluding consoles) grew 6%.
For the full year 2025, spending on games increased 1% to $52.3 billion. A 1% increase in mobile revenue and a 20% jump in subscription spending offset declines in other segments.
❗️My educated guess is that we miss part of the mobile revenue due to the D2C growing popularity.
Roblox was the leading game by dollar sales in the U.S. retail both in December 2025 and across the full year. Spending on Roblox gift cards grew 16% in 2025.
In December 2025, consumers spent 6% more on gaming hardware ($1.207 billion).
Unit sales fell 8% versus December 2024, while the average console price increased 18%.
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Across the year, console hardware sales reached $5.4 billion (+9% YoY).
Nintendo Switch 2 led December hardware sales both in units and in dollars. The console also finished as the best-selling system of 2025. PlayStation 5 ranked second.
Nintendo Switch 2 finished 2025 with 4.4 million systems sold in the U.S. That’s nearly twice the original Nintendo Switch’s sales over the same period.
Nintendo Switch 2 is the fastest-selling home console in U.S. history. Its unit sales are 35% ahead of PlayStation 4 over the same time window.
49% of PS5 units and 66% of Xbox Series units sold in 2025 were disc-free models.
PS5 Pro accounted for 13% of all PlayStation systems sold.
The only segment that declined was accessories: down 7% to $625 million. PlayStation Portal was the top-selling accessory in dollar sales for December.
The best-selling accessory of 2025 was the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller. It was purchased by 24% of system owners.
PlayStation Portal was bought by 7% of PlayStation 5 owners.
Over the year, Americans spent $3 billion on accessories, up 7% versus 2024.
Game sales
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 was December’s best-selling game. NBA 2K26 ranked #2; Battlefield 6 ranked #3.
The Call of Duty franchise has topped the December sales chart for seven years in a row. The last time another game ranked #1 in December was 2018, when Super Smash Bros. Ultimate led the chart.
Among new releases, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond debuted at #7 in December. However, this chart excludes digital sales, so the title’s real position may be higher.
Battlefield 6 remained the best-selling game for the full calendar year. This is the first time in the tracking history that the franchise has led the annual chart.
Battlefield 6 ranked #1 for the year on Xbox and PC, and #2 on PlayStation behind NBA 2K26.
For full-year U.S. sales, NBA 2K26 ranked #2 and Borderlands 4 ranked #3.
More than half of PlayStation and Xbox’s active audiences played Fortnite at least once.
Last War: Survival, Royal Match, and Candy Crush Saga were the top-grossing mobile titles in the U.S. in December 2025, according to Sensor Tower.
4 of the top 10 mobile games in the U.S. by revenue are Chinese-developed 4X strategy titles.
Platform charts
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, NBA 2K26, Madden NFL 26, and Battlefield 6 topped both the PlayStation and Xbox charts in December 2025.
NBA 2K26, Battlefield 6, and Ghost of Yotei were the three best-selling games on PlayStation across full-year 2025.
Notably, the PlayStation full-year top 10 includes more Microsoft-published games than Sony-published titles.
On Xbox, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is selling softer because it’s included in Game Pass.
Battlefield 6, NBA 2K26, and EA Sports College Football 26 were the best-selling games of 2025 on Xbox.
9 of the 10 best-selling games in December on Nintendo Switch were published by Nintendo. The only exception was Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds.
Nintendo also held dominant positions across the 2025 charts. The only non-Nintendo publisher to break into the top 10 was Warner Bros. Games at #9 with Hogwarts Legacy.
Battlefield 6, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II were the best-selling games in December on PC.
For the full year 2025, the top-grossing PC games were Battlefield 6, Monster Hunter: Wilds, and Borderlands 4.
