Highlighting an ongoing trend, the most popular games on PlayStation and Xbox are multiplayer, online, live-service titles that aren’t necessarily “new,” at least not in the traditional sense.
Circana’s Mat Piscatella revealed that 2025’s top five most-played games for PlayStation and Xbox in the US were the same as 2024’s, and in the case of PS5, the ranking was exactly the same.
On PS5, the top five most-played games in the US were Fortnite, Call of Duty, GTA V, Roblox, and Minecraft, ranked in that order. That was the same as 2024, according to Circana’s Player Engagement Tracker, which is ranked by an “active panel” of players.
On Xbox, the top five most-played games for 2025 in the US in order were Fortnite, Call of Duty, GTA V, Minecraft, and Roblox. For 2024, the ranking went Call of Duty, Fortnite, Minecraft, GTA V, and then Roblox.
Call of Duty’s inclusion in the ranking is buoyed by the fact that multiple games are lumped into one single launcher. Currently, the launcher–COD HQ–includes the newest game, Black Ops 7, as well as last year’s Black Ops 6, along with the free-to-play juggernaut Call of Duty: Warzone.
Piscatella said the takeaway here is that, “Things are a bit established at the top.”
This report followed on from a Newzoo study from 2024 that showed how 60% of playtime in games for games in 2023 were attributable to games more than five years old, including Fortnite, GTA V, Call of Duty, Roblox, and Minecraft.
Some have referred to these titles as “black hole” games because they suck up time, attention, and money to a significant degree, making it challenging for newcomers to find success.
Games like Fortnite, Minecraft, and Roblox may not be “new,” but they are live-service games that receive new content on a regular basis, creating opportunities for people to keep coming back to play and spend money. During the Christmas holiday week in the US, one in three people who turned on their PlayStation or Xbox played Fortnite.
