US Sports Expenditure Plummets 15% in January 2025, totaling $4.5 billion
Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth soared into the Top Three following its debut on Steam
After the triumphant launch of Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth on Steam, the Sq. Enix title jumped to the No. 3 position in Circana’s US charts for January.
The renewed achievement of Final Fantasy 7 follows after Sq. Enix stated that the game did “not meet expectations” after its recent release in February 2024.
The Final Fantasy 7 Remake & Rebirth Twin Pack also gained from the Steam launch, rising from No. 265 to No. 16 within the Top 20.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 held the top position overall, additionally ranking No. 1 on PlayStation’s user chart and No. 2 on Xbox Series X|S.
The only new title to debut in January was Donkey Kong Country Returns, which entered at No. 8 on the overall chart and first on the user platform chart for Nintendo Switch.
On the mobile front, Monopoly Shuffle led the charts, trailed by Roblox and Candy Crush Saga. Pokémon TCG Pocket dropped three spots, although it experienced its second highest week in revenue toward the end of January after an update.
The streaming application ReelShort – Short Film & TV made its way into the Top Ten, categorized under the interactive story sub-genre as noted by Sensor Tower’s Samuel Aune.
“ReelShort was launched in August 2022, but didn’t gain significant traction until 2023,” remarked Aune. “In the last two years, the streaming video/game hybrid has surged, and now it has broken into the Top Ten mobile games by US monthly consumer spending.”
Regarding US consumer expenditure, it dropped 15% year-on-year to $4.5 billion. However, it is worth noting that Circana’s tracking period for January was one week shorter than the five weeks captured in January 2024.
Concerning video game content consumption, this declined 12% compared to the same timeframe last year.
While non-mobile subscription spending rose by 13%, along with a 2% increase in mobile spending, it “could not compensate for drops in other areas of content spending,” according to Circana.
This includes hardware, which fell 45% Year-on-Year to $205 million—the lowest January total since $131 million in January 2020.
Sales decreased across all platforms, with PS5 dropping by 38%, Xbox Series X|S by 50%, and Switch by 53%.
Here are the top 20 selling games from the period starting January 5