Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth Climbs to No.3 in U.S. Charts After Steam Launch

January 2025 proved to be a subdued month for the video game industry, with only one new title making it into the top 20 best-sellers and the expected dominance of Call of Duty continuing unabated. However, amidst the quiet release cycle, a notable resurgence story emerged: the comeback of Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth.

Originally launched in February 2024, Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth secured the No.2 spot on Circana's U.S. dollar sales charts. However, its ranking slipped to No.7 in March and ended the year at No.17. Despite these respectable figures, Square Enix expressed dissatisfaction with the game's sales performance, hinting at unmet expectations without revealing specific sales numbers. This raised questions about the game's success relative to other major RPGs released that year, such as Dragon's Dogma 2 and its predecessor, Final Fantasy 7: Remake.

A significant factor in its initial sales performance was its exclusivity to the PS5 platform. Exclusives often struggle to match the sales of cross-platform releases. However, in January 2025, Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth expanded its reach by launching on Steam, catapulting from No.56 in December to No.3 on the Circana charts. The Final Fantasy 7: Remake & Rebirth Twin Pack also saw a dramatic rise, moving from No.265 in December to No.16 in January following the Steam debut.

Circana analyst Mat Piscatella highlighted the game's "fantastic" Steam launch on Bluesky, noting that across physical and tracked digital sales, Final Fantasy VII: 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 suggests that the game's performance may be indicative of similar trends globally, potentially influencing Square Enix's future release strategies.

Piscatella shared his thoughts on the impact of the Steam release: "It's hard for me to say what impact the Steam release has on publisher perception of overall title success. That's subject to all kinds of internal planning and expectations I'm not privy to, of course. But purely looking at consumer response, it was a very good launch month on Steam. 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."

We await Square Enix's response at their next earnings call in May to see how this might shape their future plans.

As expected, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 topped the charts for January, followed by Madden NFL 25. The only new release to break into the top 20 was Donkey Kong Country: Returns on Nintendo Switch, securing the No.8 spot based solely on physical sales, as Nintendo does not disclose digital sales data for its eShop.

It Takes Two also made a notable return to the top 20 at No.20. Piscatella noted that this resurgence was due to steady sales throughout January, boosted by promotions on the PlayStation Store and eShop in the last week of the month. This uptick in sales and engagement began in December, coinciding with anticipation for Hazelight Studios' upcoming game, Split Fiction, set for release in March.

Overall, January 2025 saw a decline in gaming industry spending compared to the previous year. The tracking period for January 2025 was four weeks, whereas January 2024 was five weeks long, resulting in a 15% drop in overall spending to $4.5 billion (which was still 0.3% ahead of January 2023's four-week period). Accessories spending fell by 28% year-over-year, content spending by 12%, and console content by 35%. Hardware spending decreased by 45%, with PS5 hardware down 38%, Xbox Series down 50%, and Switch down 53%. Despite these declines, PS5 remained the best-selling hardware in both dollars and units, with Xbox Series ranking second in hardware spending and Switch second in unit sales.

The top 20 best-selling games in the U.S. for January 2025, based on dollar sales, were:

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.