Top 20 Best-Selling Games in the U.S. for May 2025 — Elden Ring Nightreign Dominates
- Sagar Mankar
- Jul 9
- 3 min read
The U.S. video game sales chart for May 2025 is here, and Elden Ring: Nightreign has claimed the number-one spot—despite launching on the very last day of the month.
According to data from Circana, the highly anticipated expansion to FromSoftware's blockbuster RPG debuted on May 30 and still managed to surpass all other titles in just two days of sales. While that might sound surprising, the global performance backs it up. Within a week of launch, Elden Ring: Nightreign crossed 3.5 million copies sold worldwide, and a hefty chunk of that came from U.S. players. Data from VG Insights last month showed that 36% of early sales came from the United States alone, followed by China with 9% and Germany with 7%.
Right behind it in second place is Doom: The Dark Ages, another major May release. This one is also a day one release on Xbox Game Pass, along with console and PC. Despite being included in the subscription service, it still pulled in solid sales through traditional channels. According to Alinea Analytics, the game reached 3 million players, but sold around 800,000 copies—which means most people jumped in via Game Pass. That’s also stirred the ongoing debate around subscription models, with Arcane Studio’s founder recently calling the model “an unsustainable approach that has been hurting the industry for over a decade.”
In third place, Forza Horizon 5 made quite the comeback. Though it originally launched back in 2021, its late April release on PlayStation 5 gave it a fresh boost (from 42nd to 2nd spot in April). Within just eight days of hitting Sony’s console, it sold 1.4 million copies—making it the fastest-selling Xbox-published game on PlayStation, according to Alinea. Most of that momentum, unsurprisingly, came from U.S. players, where racing games continue to thrive.
Other new entries on the Top 20 include F1 25, which landed in 15th place, and Capcom Fighting Collection 2 in 19th. Interestingly, F1 25 launched on the same day as Nightreign—May 30—yet still managed to make the list.
But perhaps the most unexpected re-entry is 2017’s Star Wars: Battlefront II, which jumped from the 135th spot all the way to 12th. Why the sudden spike? A mix of big discounts (the Celebration Edition dropped to just $3.99 on Steam), the new Star Wars season in Fortnite, the Revenge of the Sith re-release, and Andor Season 2. Add to that a fan-driven Battlefront3 campaign spreading like wildfire across TikTok, Reddit, and Instagram, and the result was a serious surge in interest. On May 25, it even peaked at its highest at 35,892 concurrent players on Steam.
As for the games that dropped off the Top 20 since April, those include Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Monster Hunter Wilds, The Elder Scrolls Online, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and Hogwarts Legacy.
As for the publisher breakdown, Microsoft had a particularly strong showing, taking up four of the top five positions—Doom: The Dark Ages, Forza Horizon 5, Oblivion Remastered, and Call of Duty Black Ops 6.
Take-Two Interactive also had a solid month, with five titles making the top 20, including Grand Theft Auto V, NBA 2K25, Red Dead Redemption II, WWE 2K25, and PGA Tour 2K25.
Here’s the full list of top sellers in the U.S. for May 2025:
Top 20 Best-Selling Games – May 2025 (U.S.)
Elden Ring: Nightreign – Bandai Namco Entertainment
Doom: The Dark Ages – Microsoft
Forza Horizon 5 – Microsoft
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered – Microsoft
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 – Microsoft
MLB: The Show 25 – Multiple
Minecraft – Multiple
Grand Theft Auto V – Take-Two Interactive
NBA 2K25 – Take-Two Interactive
EA Sports FC 25 – Electronic Arts
Assassin’s Creed: Shadows – Ubisoft
Star Wars: Battlefront II (2017) – Electronic Arts
Split Fiction – Electronic Arts
Red Dead Redemption II – Take-Two Interactive
F1 25 – Electronic Arts
Helldivers II – Sony
The Last of Us: Part II – Sony
WWE 2K25 – Take-Two Interactive
Capcom Fighting Collection 2 – Capcom USA
PGA Tour 2K25 – Take-Two Interactive
With June already seeing major releases as well, that month’s rankings could look just as competitive.