Circana: The U.S. Gaming Market in October 2025
Battlefield 6 successfully challenged the Call of Duty domination of last decade(s).
Market overview
U.S. video game revenue in October 2025 reached $4.885 billion, which is 3% higher than last year.
For the first 10 months of 2025, the market generated $47.057 billion, up 2% from the same period in 2024 ($46.186 billion).
Hardware sales in October increased 36% year-over-year to $351 million.
Nintendo Switch 2 sold 328,000 units in the U.S. in October. The console is currently tracking 68% ahead of the original Switch and 3% ahead of PlayStation 4 (previous record holder).
Sales of the original Nintendo Switch fell 52% year-over-year. Xbox Series S|X declined 37%, and PlayStation 5 declined 22%.
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Purchases of ASUS handheld gaming devices increased 4.8 times YoY, driven by the launch of the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally. Overall, handheld sales for the brand are up 30% in 2025.
Content spending in October rose 1% to $4.359 billion. Mobile spending increased 10%, and subscription spending increased 9%, which compensated for declines in other segments.
Game Sales
Battlefield 6 was the top-selling new release of October by a large margin. Pokémon Legends: Z-A ranked second based on physical sales.
Pokémon Legends: Z-A is the number one physical game of 2025 for the first 10 months.
Ghost of Yotei continued to perform strongly and moved up to third place in October.
Other notable October launches included The Outer Worlds 2 in seventh place, Little Nightmares III in eighth place, and Ninja Gaiden 4 in eleventh place.
Battlefield 6 launched so successfully in the United States that it immediately became the best-selling game of the entire year, despite releasing only on October 10. On PlayStation, it ranked second behind NBA 2K26.
Battlefield 6 delivered the strongest single month of revenue and units sold since Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II in October 2022. Its first-month sales exceeded the entire lifetime sales of Battlefield 1 in the US.
Circana notes that the last shooter to outsell Call of Duty in the United States was Gears of War in 2006. For first-person shooters specifically, Star Wars: Battlefront II outsold Call of Duty in 2005. This means Call of Duty held the top position for 20 years, and Battlefield 6 now has a realistic chance of overtaking it.
Call of Duty has been the best-selling game in the United States 13 times in the past 16 years. Only Grand Theft Auto V, Red Dead Redemption II, and Hogwarts Legacy broke that streak.
Xbox 360 celebrated its 20th anniversary in the U.S. The console sold 42.7 million units lifetime in the country. The three best-selling games on the platform were all Call of Duty titles.
The top mobile games by U.S. revenue in October were MONOPOLY GO!, Royal Match, Last War: Survival, Candy Crush Saga, and Clash Royale. Gossip Harbor saw the strongest growth, ranking seventh and increasing revenue 12% month-over-month.
Platform Rankings
On PlayStation, four October releases reached the top 10: Battlefield 6, Little Nightmares III, The Outer Worlds 2, and Ninja Gaiden 4. The Xbox rankings were similar, with the difference that Ninja Gaiden 4 was also available to Game Pass subscribers (and did not appear in top sales due to this reason).
On Nintendo Switch, in addition to Pokémon Legends: Z-A and Little Nightmares III, Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake launched strongly, debuting at sixth place.
On PC, the ranking of new releases mirrored the console charts. The launch of Ghost of Yotei also boosted interest in Ghost of Tsushima, which returned to the top 10.