Category: Video Games

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is the best selling game of both December 2024 and the full year 2024 in the U.S., returning to the No.1 spot after Hogwarts Legacy took the crown in 2023.

This is according to Circana data and analysis by Mat Piscatella shared with IGN. The annual Call of Duty release historically is almost always the No.1. best-selling game in the U.S. each year by dollar sales going back to 2008, with a few exceptions. Both Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption II beat it out in their respective release years, and in 2023, Hogwarts Legacy took the crown. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was back on top this year, though it’s possible that victory is short-lived given Grand Theft Auto VI’s expected release late this year.

This year, Call of Duty was also once again the best-selling franchise in the U.S. for a record 16th year in a row.

EA Sports College Football 25, the No.2 best-selling game of 2024 and the No.3 best-selling game of December, was also the best-selling sports game in U.S. history.

Not a single Nintendo game cracked the top 20 for 2024, though that’s possibly because Nintendo does not share digital sales data with Circana, meaning all Nintendo first-party games on this list are only including physical sales in their rankings. That said, on the Nintendo Switch console, Super Mario Party Jamboree was the best-selling game of the year, followed by Mario Kart 8 at No. 2 and Mario & Luigi: Brothership at No.3.

Most of the rankings for the month of December were releases from earlier in the year or even prior years, given a low number of new releases. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was the only new release ranking in December, at No.14. Because Circana tracks in dollar sales, we don’t see new releases Marvel Rivals (free-to-play) or Path of Exile 2 ($30, as opposed to $60) on the top-selling games list. However, both ranked on Circana’s tracking of the top games in the U.S. by Steam MAUs (No.1 and No.3 for December, respectively) and Marvel Rivals was also No.3 on PS5 and Xbox Series by MAUs.

For the full year, content spending in the U.S. increased by 2% to $50.6 billion, the second highest total for content spending in U.S. history, behind 2021’s $52 billion. There was an 11% drop in console content spending, but it was balanced out by growth in all other content areas. For December by itself, video game content spending was down 5% year over year to $5.8 billion. There was a 21% drop in console content spending in December, but PC content spending grew 13%.

Hardware spending for 2024 dropped 25% from 2023 to $4.9 billion, with PS5 as the best-selling console of both the month and the year. Switch was second place for the year in unit sales, while Xbox Series finished second in dollar sales. Digital editions made up 45% of PS5s sold in the U.S. during 2024, and 44% of Xbox Series.

For the month of December alone, hardware spending was down 29% from 2023 to $1.1 billion in December. All three console makers saw the drop: PS5 hardware spending dropped 18%, and Xbox Series and Switch both dropped by 38%.

For the full year, overall spending on games was down 1.1% to $58.7 billion. For December, total spending dropped 8.9% year over year to $7.5 billion.

The top 20 best-selling games in the U.S. for the month of December, based on dollar sales:

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
2. Madden NFL 25
3. EA Sports College Football 25
4. EA Sports FC 25
5. Super Mario Party Jamboree*
6. Sonic X Shadow Generations
7. Hogwarts Legacy
8. Astro Bot
9. Minecraft*
10. NBA 2K25*
11. Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero
12. Elden Ring
13. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
14. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
15. Helldivers II
16. Mario Kart 8
17. Mario & Luigi: Brothership*
18. God of War: Ragnarok
19. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom*
20. Just Dance 2025 Edition

The top 20 best-selling games in the U.S. for the full year 2024, based on dollar sales:

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
2. EA Sports College Football 25
3. Helldivers II
4. Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero
5. NBA 2K25*
6. Madden NFL 25
7. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III (2023)
8. EA Sports FC 25
9. Elden Ring
10. EA Sports MVP Bundle
11. Hogwarts Legacy
12. Dragon’s Dogma II
13. WWE 2K24*
14. MLB: The Show 24*
15. Grand Theft Auto V*
16. Minecraft*
17. Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth
18. Tekken 8
19. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
20. NBA 2K24*

* 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.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Square Enix has now completed the story of the third and final part of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy.

Speaking to Famitsu and translated by Eurogamer, Final Fantasy series producer Yoshinori Kitase and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi said development on the highly anticipated conclusion is progressing smoothly.

“I’m very satisfied with [the story], so I’m sure fans will be satisfied with the final chapter,” Kitase said, adding that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth creative director Tetsuya Nomura gave him “homework” to ensure this was the case.

The story of Part 3, which currently lacks an official name or release window, was required to have a respect for the original Final Fantasy 7 alongside a new level of satisfaction not felt in that game, Kitase said.

Square Enix announced its plans to release Final Fantasy 7 Remake as a trilogy in June 2022, following the release of the first game which had fans questioning if the entire story would need a dozen parts to be told properly. This is because Final Fantasy Remake itself only adapted the opening few hours of the original game, up to the point where the party leaves Midgar.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth expanded the scope significantly, however, introducing the open world and thus covering myriad locations such as Costa del Sol, the Golden Saucer, and many more, including some new ones.

It brought the overall story up to the end of Disc 1 of the original Final Fantasy 7, which closes in both games with what’s arguably the most iconic moment in video game history.

Part 3 will pick up immediately after this, though very little is known about it so far. Development began in June 2022 but Square Enix hasn’t said when it will end, only vaguely noting it hopes to release Part 3 by 2027.

Something it has said, however, is that it “will not cheat” when it comes to the Highwind airship. This allowed the party to quickly move around the map in the original game but, now in the world of fast travel, many fans wondered how the iconic ship could be implemented.

“We will not cheat with the airship system [in Part 3] but take the challenge head on so it can freely fly all over the game map,” Hamaguchi said in November.

In our 9/10 review of the last game, IGN said: “Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth impressively builds off of what Remake set in motion, both as a best-in-class action role playing game full of exciting challenges and an awe inspiring recreation of a world that has meant so much to so many for so long.”

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Palworld developer Pocketpair is moving into the publishing business to release Tales of Kenzera: Zau developer Surgent Studio’s next game.

The newly formed Pocketpair Publishing said on X/Twitter it will support “a brand new horror game” from Surgent Studios, which released Tales of Kenzera: Zau as its debut title in April last year. The horror game published by Pocketpair won’t be a continuation of that universe, however.

“We noticed a pattern in the entertainment industry, and Pocketpair has given us the opportunity to make a horror game about it,” said Surgent Studios CEO Abubakar Salim. “Both Surgent and Pocketpair are well versed in taking risks. This game will be short and weird, and we think players will be interested in what we have to say.

“We’re still in earnest conversation about further projects set in the Tales of Kenzera universe, but this will be a standalone piece: a mile marker between where we’ve come from and where we’re going.”

No release window or even a title was announced, so the project is presumably still a while away from releasing. This is also separate from the Project Uso concept previously shared by Surgent Studios.

Pocketpair Publishing, meanwhile, is now accepting pitches from other developers. “We don’t want to tell you what to do.​ We don’t want to take control from you. We don’t want to change your dream or push you to make a certain type of game,” it said on its website.

Head of Pocketpair Publishing John Buckley added: “At Pocketpair, there is nothing we love more than games, and Pocketpair Publishing is our latest venture to help the world enjoy gaming even more. Game development comes with many challenges, but we want to ease that process as much as possible and provide an environment where creators can pursue their dreams.

“We are pleased to be able to support Surgent Studios’ new title as our first step. We deeply sympathize with their original ideas and passion and are honoured to help them realize their vision. We will respect the autonomy and vision of developers and work together to make great games for people all over the world.”

Salim, who is also an actor having played Assassin’s Creed Origins protagonist Bayek, Alyn of Hull in House of the Dragon, and the titular character in Tales of Kenzera: Zau, said “it’s an incredible honor to be Pocketpair Publishing’s first partner” in a follow up post on X/Twitter.

“This is the energy I want to see driving games in 2025,” he said, “developers lifting each other up, creating together, and pushing the industry forward.”

Tales of Kenzera: Zau is a single player Metroidvania game which explores themes of grief and love. It earned a 7/10 in IGN’s review. “Tales of Kenzera: Zau’s action isn’t groundbreaking within the genre, but its elevated by a truly moving tale about how to go on in this world when your loved ones have passed on to the next,” we said.

The positive reception wasn’t enough to drive unbridled success, however, as Surgent Studios announced layoffs in July. Things grew worse as employees were put on notice for redundancy in October amid further funding struggles, meaning the support from Pocketpair Publishing will likely go a long way.

As for Pocketpair, it’s still battling The Pokémon Company and Nintendo’s patent infringement lawsuit, filed following Palworld’s record-breaking sales success.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.