With 2026 officially underway, analysts have revealed the most played games. xbox Despite only sharing the top five games from Xbox and PlayStation, the new data demonstrates a trend in the gaming industry. This means that traditional live service games account for the most play time.
The past 12 months have seen some major games released from both AAA and indie developers. Titles from small development teams such as: Hollow Knight: Silksong and Claire Obsker: Expedition 33It sold millions of copies and made a huge impact on the industry. Sandfall Interactive's game even won Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2025. On the AAA front, here are the games: mario kart world and Battlefield 6 It attracts millions of players across each platform. This is just the tip of the iceberg of popular games coming out in 2025. But while last year brought plenty of titles worth checking out, new data shows that many gamers continued to play some older games instead.
Xbox Game Pass Confirms 7 More Games Coming in January 2026
Microsoft has officially revealed its January 2026 Wave 1 Xbox Game Pass lineup, consisting of seven new titles and four expansion releases.
Most Played Games of 2025 on Xbox and PlayStation (via Circana Player Engagement Tracker)
Most Played Games on PlayStation in 2025
-
fortnite
-
call of duty
-
GTA 5
-
roblox
-
minecraft
Most Played Games on PlayStation in 2024
-
fortnite
-
call of duty
-
GTA 5
-
roblox
-
minecraft
As Bluesky analyst Mat Piscatella revealed, the top five most played games in the U.S. on both Xbox and PlayStation remained the same as in 2024. This data from the Circana Player Engagement Tracker shows that gamers on PlayStation spent the most time playing. fortnite In 2025. call of duty, GTA 5, robloxand minecraft. Not only are all five games identical to the 2024 list, but they are also in the same order, suggesting that not much has changed over the past 12 months.
Most Played Games on Xbox in 2025
-
fortnite
-
call of duty
-
GTA 5
-
minecraft
-
roblox
Most Played Games on Xbox in 2024
-
call of duty
-
fortnite
-
minecraft
-
GTA 5
-
roblox
The top five games were the same as on PlayStation, although the order was slightly different on Xbox. That was the only change roblox and minecraft It has swapped places in the list. Comparing it to the 2024 Xbox list, all the games were the same except the order was changed. Piscatella posted the information on social media, summarizing his thoughts by saying, “The situation is a bit… established… at the top.” It's worth noting that the most played games are “ranked by the percentage of active panels that have played them.”
Unfortunately, Piscatella only shared the top five most played games on these platforms in 2025. However, he noted that Circana's overall U.S. video game market results for last year will be available on January 22nd. This should give us a more comprehensive idea of what gamers will be playing in 2025. Nonetheless, the top five show that major live service games continue to grow in popularity and keep players coming back year after year.
It will be interesting to see how these numbers change over the next year. There's a good chance some of these games will make it into the top five again, but when is that scheduled for 2026? GTA 6 Here we go. Considering the hype surrounding the game, it's likely to be one of the most popular titles of the year. Time will tell where this game will rank on the list of most played games in 2026.