Xbox’s foray into becoming a multi-platform publisher is going swimmingly if April’s Circana data is anything to go by. And the wave of games may even be carrying over to some success on the hardware front as well for the company.
Circana’s Mat Piscatella posted April’s data earlier today. For those unaware Circana covers all video game data in the United States. 3 of the top 5 selling games for the month were Xbox owned IPs and if we expand that even further 5 of the top 7 were Xbox IPs.
The best-selling game of the month was the Oblivion Remaster. After months of rumors surrounding its existence, it was finally announced, and released on the same day. It was the best selling game on all 3 of the major platforms it launched on – Xbox, PlayStation and Steam and instantly shot up to the third best selling game of 2025.
Interestingly Oblivion launched on Game Pass and saw 4 million players its first week. While games launching into Xbox Game Pass seem to have a harder time in the sales department, Oblivion is a bit of an anomaly so far in that sense. The remaster also sold more in its first month than the original Oblivion release sold in its first 14 months combined.
PlayStation Launches Boost Sales
In second place was Forza Horizon 5 which jumped from 42nd place in March. This massive jump is in large part thanks to the games release onto the PlayStation 5. As one of the most popular franchises Xbox has it’s no surprise to see it top the charts once again on the PlayStation platform.
As for the other Xbox owned games that reached the top 7 there was Minecraft in 4th which saw a moderate spike in sales thanks to the Minecraft movie. It was followed up by Indiana Jones and the Great Circle which jumped from 118th to 6th thanks to its PlayStation launch and lastly Call Of Duty Black Ops 6 in 7th.
The two games that split up the top of the charts from Xbox having a clean sweep? PlayStation’s MLB: The Show in 3rd and Assassin’s Creed: Shadows in 5th. Assassin’s Creed was March’s top selling game and has maintained its position as the second best selling game of 2025 so far. MLB The Show is fourth for all of 2025. Monster Hunter Wilds continues to be the best-selling game of the year and will likely stay there for the foreseeable future.
Hardware and Subscriptions Also Up For Xbox
While the software charts look great for Xbox the hardware and subscription side of things might look even better. Xbox hardware was the only piece of hardware to see year over year growth, up 8% from last year. The PlayStation 5 was still the best-selling console in terms of revenue and units despite dropping 5% year over year.
Xbox has a long way to go to catch PlayStation, and quite frankly I’m not sure they ever will again, but growth is good to see. The Nintendo Switch dropped 37% year over year as gamers wait for the Switch 2 launch in June. Overall hardware dropped by 8% and it was the lowest monthly revenue total since July 2020.
The subscription side of the industry saw some significant gains. Non-mobile subscriptions grew an impressive 18% year over year. This takes into account all the major services including Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus. While we don’t have specifics on each platform, it’s a safe bet that a portion of that is Game Pass.
