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

January is traditionally a quiet month for video games, and 2025 was no exception. With only one new game release making it into the top 20 and the expected dominance of Call of Duty, there wasn't much excitement last month... except, perhaps, for the potential resurgence of one of last year's supposed sales disappointments: Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth.

Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth launched in February 2024, debuting at No.2 on Circana's charts, which rank video games by dollar sales in the U.S. It slipped to No.7 the next month and ended the year at No.17. These figures are respectable, but there were concerns about whether the game met Square Enix's sales expectations, especially when compared to other major RPGs released that year like Dragon's Dogma 2 or its predecessor, Final Fantasy 7: Remake. Square Enix eventually admitted that the game did not meet their sales targets and did not disclose specific sales numbers, indicating it didn't perform as well as hoped.

However, Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth initially launched as a PS5 exclusive, which typically presents sales challenges compared to cross-platform releases. As of January 2025, it's no longer exclusive, having debuted on Steam and soared to No.3 on the Circana charts for the month, up from No.56 in December. The Final Fantasy 7: Remake & Rebirth Twin Pack also saw a significant rise, moving from No.265 in December to No.16 in January, thanks to the Steam release.

The success doesn't stop there. 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."

Although these figures are U.S.-specific, they likely reflect similar trends globally, which might influence Square Enix's future strategies. The strong PC sales could prompt Square Enix to consider cross-platform releases for future Final Fantasy games. When asked about the impact of the Steam release, Piscatella commented:

"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 until Square Enix's next earnings call in May to see their official 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 again, followed by Madden NFL 25. The only new release to make the top 20 in January was Donkey Kong Country: Returns on Nintendo Switch, which reached No.8 based solely on physical sales (Nintendo does not share digital sales data for its eShop).

It Takes Two also made a notable return to the top 20, securing spot No.20. Piscatella explained that there's no single reason for this, saying, "There has been promotion happening during the month, including the last week of Jan on both the PlayStation store and eShop. 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."

Much of the promotion for It Takes Two is in anticipation of Hazelight Studios' upcoming game, Split Fiction, set to release in March.

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

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