The first 2026 data from Circana has landed, revealing how the video game industry fared in January 2026 and the year so far. One takeaway to consider is that software sales are growing, but not by much, and mainly fueled by spending on subscription services in a month that did not have many high-profile new releases.
Circana’s US report said total spending on video game content in January 2026 rose by 3% year-over-year to $4.3 billion. This uptick was driven mainly by subscription spending, which rose by 23% year-over-year. Meanwhile, spending on console games and PC games only rose very modestly, at 2% and 1%, respectively. Additionally, spending on mobile games fell 1% during January 2026.
The Circana report did not single out any specific subscription services, but there are many in play currently. Some of them include Xbox Game Pass, PlayStation Plus, Nintendo Switch Online, Apple Arcade, Nvidia GeForce Now, EA Play, Game Club, Humble Bundle, Prime Gaming, and Ubisoft+, just to name a few.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 was the No. 1 best-selling game in January 2026 in the US, retaining its top spot from December 2025. Code Vein II was the only new release in January to make the top 20 charts, landing at No. 11 overall.
January 2026 had a lot of new releases, but not a lot of high-profile titles that one might expect to rise up the sales charts. This could help explain why software sales in the US for January 2026 came in soft.
The biggest month-over-month mover, meanwhile, was Square Enix’s Final Fantasy VII: Remake–it surged from No. 225 in December 2025 to No. 9 in January 2026. This was due to the release of the Switch 2 and Xbox Series X|S versions in January 2026, Circana said.
Beyond spending on games, Circana reported that spending on gaming hardware increased by 16% year-over-year, rising to $248 million for January 2026. The PS5 saw a 17% decline in sales, with Xbox Series X|S falling by 27%, and Switch 1 decreasing by 79%. The Switch 2 obviously did very well in January 2026, because it offset all of those year-over-year losses for the other platforms to help improve total hardware spending in January 2026 by 16%.
The PS5 was, however, the No. 1 hardware platform in January 2026 for unit and dollar sales, despite the year-over-year declines. Switch 2 was No. 2 for unit and dollar sales.
In terms of total spending on games in the US for January 2026–spanning games, hardware, and accessories–that came to $4.698 billion, an increase of 3% year-over-year.
