I have to hand it to the Star Wars faithful: just when I thought Star Wars: Battlefront II was done and dusted, the Force pulled it right back into the spotlight. According to Circana, the 2017 shooter jumped to No. 12 on the U.S. best-selling games chart for May 2025 by dollar sales, up from No. 135 the month before. That is not a typo. A game that launched during the Battlefront II loot-box controversy era suddenly became a top-20 seller again, and the reason was a TV show: Andor.
I remember watching the Andor hype cycle build and thinking, 'This is going to be a shot in the arm for anything with a Star Wars logo.' I was right. Battlefront II saw its best Steam player count in years, helped along by Andor actor Ben Amor calling for a Battlefront 3 on social media. When an actor from the show starts banging the drum for a sequel, fans listen. The Force was strong with this one. 🎮
Circana analyst Mat Piscatella told IGN that the player surge actually started with the 20th anniversary re-release of Revenge of the Sith in early May, then really picked up with Andor. 'Players peaked in the week of May 25 and then started to fall back a bit,' he said. 'There was another bump in mid- to late June as the game was put into various sales and things as well but that's a story for two weeks from now.' Of course, from my 2026 vantage point, that story has already been told. The mid-to-late June bump happened, and it proved that a good sale can squeeze a few more credits out of a live-service game.
But Battlefront II was not the only story in May 2025. Elden Ring: Nightreign debuted at the top of the charts, becoming the 11th best-selling game of 2025 so far and topping the PlayStation, Xbox, and PC storefronts. That is a heck of a launch for a game that is not exactly a traditional sequel. Piscatella noted that Nightreign and the original Elden Ring are not really comparable sales-wise because they are very different games sold at very different prices. 'That being said, Nightreign launch unit sales did not reach the same neighborhood as those of Elden Ring.' Fair enough. Lightning rarely strikes the same open world twice.
Doom: The Dark Ages debuted right behind it at No. 2, and it became the 16th best-selling game of 2025. Like Nightreign, it did not hit the sales heights of its predecessor, Doom Eternal. Piscatella chalked that up to timing more than anything. 'Doom Eternal launched in March 2020... and nothing is going to ever comp well to any new game that launched in March of 2020.' I mean, he is not wrong. March 2020 was a once-in-a-generation moment when everyone was stuck inside and video games were the main event. Trying to compare any modern launch to that is like comparing a backyard fireworks show to the Death Star. 🔥
New games F1 25 and Capcom Fighting Collection 2 also debuted at No. 15 and No. 19, respectively. They did not set the world on fire, but they found their lane.
Here is the top 20 for May 2025, as reported by Circana:
| Rank | Game |
|---|---|
| 1 | Elden Ring: Nightreign (NEW) |
| 2 | Doom: The Dark Ages (NEW) |
| 3 | Forza Horizon 5 |
| 4 | The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Remastered |
| 5 | Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 |
| 6 | MLB: The Show 25* |
| 7 | Minecraft* |
| 8 | Grand Theft Auto V |
| 9 | NBA 2K25 |
| 10 | EA Sports FC 25 |
| 11 | Assassin's Creed: Shadows |
| 12 | Star Wars: Battlefront II |
| 13 | Split Fiction |
| 14 | Red Dead Redemption II |
| 15 | F1 25 (NEW) |
| 16 | Helldivers II |
| 17 | The Last of Us: Part II |
| 18 | WWE 2K25 |
| 19 | Capcom Fighting Collection 2 (NEW) |
| 20 | PGA Tour 2K25 |
The asterisk means some or all digital sales are not included in Circana's data. Some publishers, including Nintendo, do not share certain digital data for this report. So the chart is always a bit of a patchwork quilt. 📊
Overall, spending on video game content was up 2% year-over-year to $3.7 billion, largely driven by subscription spending on non-mobile platforms. Hardware, on the other hand, took a hit. Hardware spending dropped 13% year-over-year in May to $172 million. Nintendo Switch dollar sales dropped 44%, Xbox Series dropped 30%, and PlayStation grew 3%. The PlayStation 5 was the best-selling hardware in both unit sales and dollars. Next month's charts for June were expected to show the impact of the Nintendo Switch 2's release, and by now, in 2026, we know that launch shook up the landscape in a big way. Overall video game spending was up 1% year-over-year to $4.1 billion.
What strikes me most about this May 2025 snapshot is how unpredictable the game industry can be. A 2017 game with a rocky launch became a top-20 seller because a prestige TV show reminded everyone that Star Wars can still be great. A roguelike-ish Elden Ring spin-off topped the charts. A new Doom game did well but could not escape the shadow of a pandemic-era juggernaut. And hardware sales were down even as content spending was up. It is a mixed bag, and that is exactly why I love following these charts.
If there is a lesson here, it is that games can have a second life. Battlefront II may never get a proper Battlefront 3, but for one month in 2025, it was back in the saddle. And in 2026, with the Switch 2 era in full swing and subscription spending still rising, I would not bet against another old game getting a surprise comeback. The numbers do not lie: nostalgia sells, and a good TV show can be the best marketing campaign a publisher never planned.