Even Though the Switch 2 is Still Brand-New, the PS5 Outsold It Last Month

The latest Circana report claims that the PlayStation 5 was the best-selling piece of gaming hardware in the US for January 2026. This means that the PS5, a five-year-old console, managed to sell more units than the Nintendo Switch 2, which launched just last June.

Founded in 1966, Circana is an American market research group that works with numerous publishing partners to collate and analyze data across a variety of sectors, including the video game industry. A primary voice in Circana’s video game division is Mat Piscatella, a former planner and analyst for Warner Bros. and Activision and the current Senior Director and Video Game Industry Advisor at Circana. Piscatella publishes a monthly report via social media that delivers a concise breakdown of the best-selling video game products of the previous month.

The PlayStation 5 Outsold the Nintendo Switch 2 in January 2026

On February 20, Circana’s Mat Piscatella published his report on January 2026’s video game spending statistics. Piscatella summarized the key points of this report via a Bluesky thread. One of the biggest takeaways of the report is that gaming hardware sales are up 16% from last year, increasing from $213 million in January 2025 to $248 million in January 2026. One of the primary beneficiaries of this increase was Sony’s PlayStation 5, with it selling more units and earning more dollar sales than any other piece of gaming hardware. The Nintendo Switch 2 came in second. This is also in spite of the PlayStation 5 seeing a 17% drop in sales since January 2025.

Piscatella’s report also claims that Xbox Series hardware sales are down 27% since January 2025, and sales of the original Nintendo Switch hardware are down 79%. Another key takeaway from this report is that overall spending on video game content (physical sales, digital sales, DLC, microtransactions, and subscriptions) has increased 3% compared to last year, rising from $4.5 billion in January 2025 to almost $4.7 billion in January 2026. Subscription-based spending has also seen a sizable 23% increase since January 2025.

The Top 20 Best-Selling Games of January 2026

In the same report, Circana’s Mat Piscatella shared the top 20 best-selling premium games of January 2026 in the US. These figures do not include any digital sales of Nintendo-published games, but it does include Nintendo’s physical sales in the US.

Despite a disappointing critical reception, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 continues to be a commercial success in the US, maintaining the number one spot on Circana’s best-selling games list since its launch last November. According to Piscatella, Black Ops 7 was the 10th best-selling game of 2025, coming nine spots behind Battlefield 6. But while Battlefield 6 was the best-selling game of 2025, it dropped to the number five spot in January 2026’s monthly report.

As is often the case, sports games dominate this best-selling games list for January 2026. NBA 2K26 earned the number two spot, with Madden NFL 26 close on its tail at number three. EA Sports FC 26 then took the number 6 spot, while EA Sports College Football 26 took number 14.

A number of older titles have managed to maintain their spot on the top 20 best-selling US games list. Minecraft has moved up from the number eight spot in December 2025 to number four in January 2026. Grand Theft Auto 5 has also moved up, going from 12 to seven. Red Dead Redemption 2 also snuck into the top 10 last month, being promoted from its number 15 spot in December. Code Vein 2 marks the only new game on this list, while Final Fantasy 7 Remake‘s Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox ports have taken it from the number 225 spot to number nine.