Xbox dominates April sales charts as their publishing plans fall into place
Circana has revealed video game sales data for the month of April, and it paints a very green picture. Xbox games take the top two spots and much more.
Microsoft and Xbox’s plan is falling into place. Unfortunately for fans of the Xbox hardware, the publisher’s decisions to focus more on putting games on other platforms and acquiring studios like Bethesda and Activision Blizzard have made them the number one name on the best-selling charts. Mat Piscatella, Executive Director and Video Game Industry Analyst at Circana, shared a post on BlueSky listing the top twenty best-selling games between April 6th and May 3rd. Microsoft published numbers one and two, and appears several more times on the list.
Xbox’s publishing plans are finally falling into place as they dominate April sales charts
Many of the games on the list were the usual suspects. But there were a few notable shake-ups. Surprising no one, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered was number one on the list despite also being available on Game Pass. The sudden release of this remaster on April 22nd clearly left an impact. Another noteworthy inclusion, though, is Forza Horizon 5, a game that originally released exclusively on Xbox in 2021 but launched on PlayStation 5 on April 29th. The racing game jumped from 42nd place last month to 2nd place this month.
Other Microsoft-published games included Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, which jumped from 118th place last month to 6th place after launching on PlayStation 5 on April 17th. The Elder Scrolls Online also had a significant sales boost, possibly due to the success of Oblivion Remastered. Mainstays like Minecraft and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 also remained strong.
This third-party success is especially highlighted when looking at sales on PlayStation, the rival console to Xbox. Piscatella shared the top ten sellers on the Sony platform during the same period. Out of those top ten, five were Microsoft-published titles. Take-Two Interactive has two in the top ten, but that’s the closest any other publisher comes to Microsoft’s five. Combining this with the recent news that Xbox’s digital services, such as Game Pass, have been growing, it paints a very green picture over the video game space.
Over the last year, as more and more titles jumped from Xbox exclusive to other platforms, some Xbox fans complained that “PlayStation won.” They saw this as Xbox finally caving to the pressure of the rival console. It’s easy to see that on the hardware side of things, Xbox is behind PlayStation. But when it comes to software, dominating the rival console’s digital store is quite the statement.
Lately, Xbox’s strategy has broken from what is expected. Many long-time fans expected Microsoft to continue making Xbox hardware. That’s the way it’s been for years. That’s how video games have been done for so long. But after a few tough years and billions upon billions of dollars in acquisitions, Xbox’s master plan is finally taking shape.
Game Pass continues to grow in value. Aside from the huge first-party releases like Doom: The Dark Ages being there day one, many of the year’s top-rated games also launched on Game Pass. Look at Metacritic’s best of 2025 so far. Among the top five are today’s Monster Train 2, the indie sensation Blue Prince, and the masterful RPG, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. All these games arrived on Game Pass day one. They may not be Xbox studio games, but the fact that Game Pass has huge blockbusters alongside these critical darlings is impressive.
The next few years will be interesting to track. We are likely years away from the PlayStation 6 and the next generation of Xbox consoles. For now, it still seems likely that Xbox will keep making hardware, though they may just not put as much emphasis on it.
Microsoft is far from a perfect company, though. Over the last few years, they have laid off thousands of developers, raised prices on consoles, and there is an ongoing boycott of Microsoft Gaming for the company’s role in the ongoing world conflicts. There are many ways this story can go for Xbox. We will have to wait to see what happens next.
