2025 is shaping up to be one of Microsoft’s best years when it comes to its game publishing division, whose titles are setting new records on console-maker rival Sony’s sales charts. As the expression goes, someone is laughing all the way to the bank, but depending on perspective, it may not be who you would initially think. Microsoft began the year by bringing Xbox/PC exclusive Indiana Jones and The Great Circle over to PlayStation on April 17, and as expected, it claimed the #1 spot on PlayStation’s charts where it sold nearly 30% faster on PS5 than it did on Steam, but that was only the beginning of Microsoft’s sales dominance.
Barely a week after Indy swung into action on the PS5, a 20-year-old classic arrived in the form of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered on April 21. It currently sits in the #1 spot and is said to be the third best-selling title worldwide thus far in 2025, but the story doesn’t end there, not by a long shot. Minecraft, despite being over 14 years old, resides in 2nd place on PlayStation’s sales chart. This could be in part due to the overall success of the movie, but its ongoing updates and features are sure to have a role in its continued popularity.
Next up is Forza Horizon 5, which raced to 3rd position. Released for PS5 on April 29, pre-orders gained access on April 25, the one-time Xbox racing exclusive is now taking on Sony at its home track, where Gran Turismo has reigned since the PSone. At #6 is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (now having sold over 2 million copies since release), with whom Microsoft has dealings with its publisher that also included day one release on Xbox Game Pass, but after that is Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. The Call of Duty franchise was a point of discussion when Microsoft’s purchase of Activision/Blizzard was scrutinized by regulators. MS said it had every intention of bringing the franchise over to PlayStation, and has kept good on its promise, which is yet another hit on the PS5. However, that title was released roughly six months ago on October 25, 2024.
The carnage is far from over with Doom: The Dark Ages set to arrive on Xbox, PC, and PlayStation next week on May 12. While it’s still too early to say if the next instalment will slay the competition to claim the #1 spot on Sony’s charts, it probably will. Ultimately, though, there are two sides to this tale of sales records. On one hand, Microsoft’s game publishing division is obviously raking in the cash from these sales. On the other Sony stands to potentially gain with its PS5 console sales. There’ve already been rumors that Microsoft could end up focusing more on its gaming division than console manufacturing, something that Xbox CEO Phil Spencer has adamantly denied while adding that more hardware products are on their way (aka handhelds). In the end, it’s the gamers who are winning here, and that should be celebrated by all because when there’s good competition, there are good times to be shared by all.
Discussion (6 replies)
Join Discussion →Nice. But I bet Sony is having some consternation here.
I'd say Sony has not published a good game since God of War (2018) or Marvel's Spider-Man. They have been trying to go all in on live service games recently and in the process let the tightly designed single player games that made them dominate the console market fall to the wayside.
I’d say Sony isn’t worried at all. It really looks like Microsoft is about to pull an Atari or Sega and just drop out of the console hardware game and be a publishing house.
As long as the game is selling on Sony’s platform, they get royalties.
Then it’s a two-horse race for consoles (well, one for “console” and one for “portable console” - they do not directly compete). I think MS believes they can compete with that with cloud gaming alone, I am not convinced they can.
I agree on all points there. I feel that we can all see the wheels turning in Spencer's head when it comes to these possibilities.
If they can get 100+ FPS full everything No upscaling at 4k for all games via streaming... man gotta say that would be tempting.
But I prefer to run my stuff local... but from an joe average PC guy wanting to game but not drop THOUSNADS on hardware... I could see it.
I'm sure they could, but I think the latency would be so terrible it would be closer to watching Netflix than playing a video game.