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

January is typically a quiet period for video game releases, and 2025 was no different. With only one new title breaking into the top 20 and the expected dominance of Call of Duty, there wasn't much to celebrate from last month—except, perhaps, the potential comeback story of one of last year's supposed sales underperformers: Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth.

Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth debuted in February 2024 at No.2 on Circana's charts, which rank video games by dollar sales in the U.S. It fell to No.7 the following month and ended the year at No.17. These numbers are respectable, yet post-launch there was considerable speculation about whether the game met Square Enix's sales expectations or performed well compared to other major RPGs released that year, such as Dragon's Dogma 2 or its predecessor Final Fantasy 7: Remake. Square Enix eventually admitted that the game did not meet its sales targets and did not release any sales figures, suggesting it hadn't performed well enough to boast about.

However, Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth was initially a PS5 exclusive, and exclusives often struggle with sales compared to cross-platform releases. By January 2025, it was no longer exclusive, having been released on Steam, which propelled it from No.56 in December to No.3 on the Circana charts. The Final Fantasy 7: Remake & Rebirth Twin Pack also surged from No.265 in December to No.16 in January, thanks to the Steam release.

That's not all. Circana analyst Mat Piscatella noted on Bluesky that Rebirth had a "fantastic" Steam launch: "Across physical & tracked digital, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth was the best-selling game of the week ending Jan 25th in the US market ($ sales), while the FFVII Remake & Rebirth Twin Pack ranked 3rd."

This success in the U.S. likely reflects similar trends globally, which could signal to Square Enix that a change in strategy is necessary. The strong sales following the PC launch might encourage Square Enix to consider cross-platform releases for future Final Fantasy titles. When asked about the impact of the Steam release, Piscatella stated:

"I mean 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'll have to wait for Square Enix's next earnings call in May to see their reaction. Stay tuned.

As for the rest of the charts, it's no surprise that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was the best-selling game of the month, followed by Madden NFL 25. The only new release to make the top 20 was Donkey Kong Country: Returns on Nintendo Switch, reaching No.8 based solely on physical sales (Nintendo does not share digital sales data for its eShop).

Also noteworthy was the return of It Takes Two to the top 20, at spot No.20. According to Piscatella, "There has been promotion happening during the month, including the last week of Jan on both the PlayStation store and eShop," he said. "But really, It Takes Two had pretty steady sales all month. But it was in December that It Takes Two really started its latest rally with both sales and engagement upticks that extended into January."

This promotion for It Takes Two is part of the buildup to the release of Hazelight Studios' next game, Split Fiction, set for March.

Overall, January's gaming spending numbers look somewhat disappointing compared to last January, but there's a potential explanation. This year's January tracking period was four weeks long, while 2024's January was five weeks, providing an extra week to generate revenue. As a result, overall spending was down 15% to $4.5 billion for the month (it was 0.3% ahead of January 2023's four-week period). Accessories spending decreased by 28% year-over-year.

Content spending fell by 12% compared to last year, with console content down 35%. Hardware spending dropped by 45%. PS5 hardware spending was down 38% year-over-year, Xbox Series down 50%, and Switch down 53%. PS5 was the best-selling hardware of the month in both dollars and units, with Xbox Series second in hardware spending, and Switch just behind in unit sales.

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

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.