While 2026 is officially underway, new data from Circana analyst Mat Piscatella has revealed the most-played games in the US for 2025. The results highlight a staggering trend: the gaming industry's "top tier" is becoming increasingly difficult to disrupt. Despite massive releases like Battlefield 6 and the breakout success of indie darling Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the games most people are actually sinking their time into are nearly a decade old.
The 2025 Leaderboard
The rankings, based on the percentage of the active player panel that engaged with the game, show almost total stagnation at the top. On PlayStation, the list is an exact mirror of 2024.
| Rank | PlayStation (2025) | Xbox (2025) |
| 1 | Fortnite | Fortnite |
| 2 | Call of Duty | Call of Duty |
| 3 | Grand Theft Auto V | Grand Theft Auto V |
| 4 | Roblox | Minecraft |
| 5 | Minecraft | Roblox |
On Xbox, the only notable movement was Fortnite reclaiming the #1 spot from Call of Duty and a slight shuffle between Minecraft and Roblox. As Piscatella noted on social media, "Things are a bit... established... at the top."
New Hits vs. Evergreen Giants
2025 was by no means a slow year for new content. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 became a cultural phenomenon, sweeping The Game Awards 2025 with a record-breaking nine wins, including Game of the Year. Meanwhile, the long-awaited Hollow Knight: Silksong finally launched, selling millions and winning GOTY at the 2025 Steam Awards.
However, even with these massive sales and critical accolades, they couldn't break the top five in total playtime. This illustrates the widening gap between a "hit game" and a "lifestyle game." Players are buying new experiences, but they are spending their daily hours in social ecosystems like Fortnite and Roblox. Even Battlefield 6, which launched with over 740,000 concurrent players in October, saw an 85% drop in active users by the end of the year, falling well behind the evergreen top five.
Looking Ahead to 2026: The GTA 6 Factor
The only title currently on the horizon with the potential to shatter this list is Grand Theft Auto VI. Following a recent delay announced by Rockstar, the game is now officially slated for November 19, 2026.
Given that GTA 5 is still the third most-played game in the world twelve years after its release, the launch of its successor is expected to be the biggest shift in player engagement data in over a decade. Until then, it seems we are living in the era of the "forever game," where the biggest competitors for new releases aren't other new games, but the ones we've been playing since 2013.
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