As we approach the end of 2025, it’s time to start looking back and admiring some of the biggest and best games of the year.
Things started with a bang thanks to Monster Hunter Wilds and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. That trend continued over the summer with the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2, featuring Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza.
Indies have had a great year as well, headlined by games like Hollow Knight: Silksong, Megabonk, Ball x Pit, and Arc Raiders.
Remarkably, though, only one of these games can be called a bestseller in 2025, according to data collected by Circana detailing the best-selling games of the year.
So then, which games have quietly outsold the biggest titles of 2025? Let’s find out.
This list will not be solely comprised of games released specifically in 2025. Some of the best-selling games of 2025 were released in years prior.
8 Civilization 7
It Turns Out People Are Indeed Taking Just One More Turn
-
- Released
- February 11, 2025
- ESRB
- Everyone 10+ // Alcohol and Tobacco Reference, Mild Language, Mild Violence, Suggestive Themes
- Publisher(s)
- 2K
- Engine
- Gamebryo Engine
- Cross-Platform Play
- Yes – all platforms, restrictions apply
- Cross Save
- Yes, via 2K account
- Franchise
- Sid Meier’s Civilization
- Number of Players
- 1-8 players
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Verified
- Early Access Release
- February 6, 2025
- PC Release Date
- February 11, 2025
- Xbox Series X|S Release Date
- February 11, 2025
- PS5 Release Date
- February 11, 2025
- Nintendo Switch Release Date
- February 11, 2025
- Nintendo Switch 2 Release Date
- June 5, 2025
- How Long To Beat
- 14 hours
- X|S Optimized
- Yes
- Local Co-Op Support
- No
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
I’m fully aware that my thinking highly of Civilization 7 was a minority opinion at launch. It’s still something I feel; there’s a good game hiding somewhere within Civ 7.
To Firaxis’ credit, they’re doing everything they can to draw it out. They most certainly need to, as most people are spending their time playing Civ 6 and Civ 5.
Despite that, Civ 7 is one of the year’s best-selling games. It’s confusing to me, given the overall poor reception from fans. Then again, Civ fans were desperate for a new game, so is it really that surprising?
There’s a reputation that all new Civ games have: it starts out bad before eventually becoming good, and we joke that it was always good. I’m not sure if Civ 7 will follow that trajectory, but it’s clear that there are a lot of invested people in the game, despite what online chatter says.
7 NBA 2K25
The One Where Luka Is Still On The Mavs
I get it; NBA 2K is one of the best sports franchises of all time, so it’s not surprising that it’s also one of the year’s best-selling games. I’d be more surprised to learn that..
…wait, we’re talking about last year’s game? Now that’s surprising.
Maybe it’s a large contingency of Dallas Mavericks fans buying the game and firing GM Nico Harrison before he can trade Luka Doncic [Editor’s note: he is now fired!].
Maybe it’s people spending Christmas money after the New Year. Either way, it proves just how popular the 2K series is, even if some people are frustrated with the state of the franchise.
Honestly, and this wouldn’t surprise me: it could be that people don’t feel like NBA 2K26 is worth the money. I don’t have any answers for you; all I can do is shrug on this one.
6 Minecraft
It’s Printing Money!
-
- Released
- November 18, 2011
- ESRB
- E10+ For Everyone 10+ Due To Fantasy Violence
- Engine
- LWJGL, PROPRIETARY ENGINE
- Number of Players
- 1-4
- Split Screen Orientation
- Vertical or Horizontal
- Platform(s)
- 3DS, Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Wii U, PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PS Vita, Xbox One, Xbox 360
- How Long To Beat
- 129 Hours
- X|S Optimized
- No
- File Size Xbox Series
- 1.42 GB (August 2024)
- Metascore
- 93
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
This game is just a permanent bestseller, I guess. The movie surely helped, too, I imagine.
But wait a second: the movie’s target demographic is fans of the game. At this point, who hasn’t bought Minecraft yet?
Is there just a constant spawning of iPad kids whose parents are buying them Minecraft so they can play with friends? Has this demographic not yet reached critical mass?
Minecraft is already the best-selling video game of all time, having amassed over 350 million units sold. That’s more than the entire population of the United States. I know I sound like I’m kidding around here, but I’m being serious: who hasn’t bought this game yet?
5 Forza Horizon 5
One Of The Best Racing Games, Now On PS5!
One of my favorite things when looking over sales figures from 2024 was seeing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe continue to dominate sales charts. Not bad for a game that came out in 2017!
Its predecessor, Mario Kart World, doesn’t rank among the best-selling games by dollars in 2025. Then again, nearly everyone who bought Switch 2 picked up the Mario Kart bundle.
What does any of this have to do with Forza Horizon 5, which is also a great racing game? The game recently came out on the PlayStation 5, leading to a surge in sales that is as impressive as, say, Mario Kart 8’s sustained retail dominance.
There’s a lot of (warranted) criticism of Microsoft’s current strategy of releasing its games on other platforms, but based on the success of Forza Horizon 5, it’s clearly working in some regards.
4 Madden NFL 26
It’s In The Game
This year’s version of Madden isn’t a good game. I should know because I reviewed it.
My colleague Ethan even pointed out that there’s not much new this year to write home about. So tell me then, why am I still playing this game every now and then?
Am I that addicted to football? I mean, I’m writing this while watching an abysmal Monday Night Football game between the Packers and Eagles. This comes on the heels of an even worse Thursday Night Football game between the Broncos and the Raiders.
I can guarantee you that I was far from the only person watching these games, just like I’m far from the only person playing Madden this year. At the end of the day, it’s still football, and even bad football is something I, like many others, still consume.
Nearly 20 Years Old And Still Iconic
Leading up to the release of Expedition 33, people were concerned that the shadow drop release of Oblivion Remastered was going to steal some of its thunder.
Of course, it’s not incredibly silly looking back. It turns out that both were more than capable of coexisting. Oblivion Remastered was the third best-selling game of April, but Expedition 33 picked up the slack and sold 5 million units by October.
You can’t put all the blame on Expedition 33 being on Game Pass; Oblivion Remastered was as well. The games are similarly priced as well. Then there’s the fact that all the talk at the time was all about how good Expedition 33 was. It felt like there was little to no discussion about Oblivion Remastered.
It turns out that everyone was too busy playing Oblivion to talk about it.
A National Champion
2024 marked the glorious return of EA Sports’ college football franchise, and it was well worth the wait. It’s not often games live up to the hype, but College Football 25 most certainly did. I still have that drum line beat stuck in my head while I was scouting players for recruitment.
This year’s release came and went with far less fanfare. One reason is because this year’s release was honestly nothing to write home about. Another is because, well, we’re all still playing last year’s game. Or at least I thought.
It’s a testament to the demand for a college football video game that, even during a sophomore slump, College Football 26 can outsell some of the biggest video games of 2025. If EA Sports can avoid the Arch Manning-esque regression next year and deliver a Heisman Trophy performance, then maybe it’ll become 2026’s best-selling game. As for now, though, another sports game has the crown.
1 NBA 2K26
Swish
I’m sure by the end of the year, Call of Duty will take over the top spot, but will it? I mean, NBA 2K25 is generating more money than most of this year’s best games.
As I’ve said before, that’s the name of the game when it comes to sports titles. Despite their flaws and issues, they have a very devoted fan base that shows up year in and year out.
Despite its current flaws, NBA 2K remains one of the most popular sports games on the market. Given the runaway popularity of American football and soccer, that’s an impressive feat.
Like last year’s release, NBA 2K26 has received a mixed reception, but I feel that it’ll take some massive mistakes from Visual Concepts and 2K to turn people off from the franchise at this point, especially since the NBA and 2K will be working together for years to come.
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Author: 360 Technology Group
