After 'Failing to Meet Expectations' at Launch, Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth Shoots to No.3 in U.S. Charts With Steam Debut

January 2025 continued the trend of being a quiet month in the video game industry, with minimal new releases making significant impacts on the sales charts. The notable exception was the continued dominance of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, which maintained its position as the best-selling game of the month, closely followed by Madden NFL 25. The only new release to break into the top 20 was Donkey Kong Country: Returns on the Nintendo Switch, securing the 8th spot based on physical sales alone.

However, the most intriguing development of the month was the resurgence of Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth. Initially launched exclusively on PS5 in February 2024, it debuted at No.2 on Circana's charts but saw a decline to No.7 the following month and ended the year at No.17. Square Enix had previously expressed disappointment in its sales performance, suggesting it fell short of expectations. But with its January 2025 release on Steam, Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth experienced a dramatic rise, jumping from No.56 in December to No.3 on the January charts. Similarly, the Final Fantasy 7: Remake & Rebirth Twin Pack surged from No.265 to No.16.

Circana analyst Mat Piscatella highlighted the impressive Steam launch, stating that Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth was the best-selling game of the week ending January 25th in the U.S. market, with the Twin Pack ranking third. This success raises questions about Square Enix's future strategies, particularly regarding platform exclusivity. Piscatella commented, "This launch does provide yet another benchmark that shows releasing on PC makes a ton of sense at this point regardless of genre or historical release strategies. For 3rd party publishers, it's looking harder and harder to release exclusively on a single platform without significant incentives provided by the platform holder."

The rest of the top 20 saw It Takes Two re-enter the charts at No.20, driven by promotional efforts ahead of Hazelight Studios' upcoming game, Split Fiction, set for release in March. Despite these highlights, overall spending in January 2025 was down 15% to $4.5 billion compared to the previous year, influenced by a shorter tracking period. Content spending dropped 12%, with console content down 35%, while hardware spending saw a significant 45% decline. The PS5 remained the best-selling hardware in both dollars and units, with the Xbox Series and Switch following.

Here is the list of the top 20 best-selling games in the U.S. for January 2025, based on dollar sales:

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
2. Madden NFL 25
3. Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth
4. EA Sports FC 25
5. Minecraft
6. Marvel's Spider-Man 2
7. EA Sports College Football 25
8. Donkey Kong Country Returns
9. Hogwarts Legacy
10. Sonic Generations
11. Helldivers II
12. Astro Bot
13. Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero
14. Super Mario Party Jamboree
15. Elden Ring
16. Final Fantasy VII Remake & Rebirth Twin Pack
17. Mario Kart 8
18. The Crew: Motorfest
19. UFC 5
20. It Takes Two

Indicates that some or all digital sales are not included in Circana's data. Some publishers, including Nintendo and Take-Two, do not share certain digital data for this report.