If you have ever checked a monthly U.S. video game sales chart to see which title “won” the month, you have Circana — the market research firm formerly known as The NPD Group — to thank. Those charts are about to get a lot blurrier. As Kotaku reports, both Microsoft’s Xbox division and Electronic Arts have stopped sharing their U.S. digital sales data with Circana, and it is a genuine blow to transparency in the gaming industry.
What Exactly Is Going On?
Circana builds its monthly U.S. game sales reports using data supplied directly by publishers and platform holders. Xbox and EA were part of that program, which meant digital downloads — everything from EA Sports FC and Madden NFL to every title sold through the Xbox Store — could be factored into the rankings that analysts like Mat Piscatella publish each month. With both companies now withholding their digital figures, purchases made through the Xbox digital storefront and EA’s digital catalog will be missing or undercounted in future Circana charts.
Why Losing Digital Data Is Such a Big Deal
Digital Is the Market Now
Physical game sales have been shrinking for well over a decade. In the United States, the overwhelming majority of game spending now happens digitally, whether through console storefronts, PC launchers, or online key retailers. Remove the digital numbers of two players as massive as Xbox and EA, and monthly charts simply stop reflecting reality. A genuine chart-topping blockbuster could look mediocre on paper, and industry-wide spending totals become far less trustworthy.
A Widening Transparency Gap
This move also fits a broader pattern of the games industry sharing less, not more. Microsoft stopped disclosing Xbox hardware sales figures years ago, pivoting its public messaging toward engagement metrics like Game Pass usage and player counts instead of raw unit sales. Other platform holders have grown more selective about their disclosures as well. When the biggest companies in gaming decide their sales data is better kept internal, analysts, journalists, investors — and ultimately players — lose their clearest window into how the business is actually performing.
Why Would Xbox and EA Do This?
Neither company has publicly explained the decision, but the timing is telling. Xbox is in the middle of a sweeping strategic shift, bringing first-party titles to rival platforms like PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch while positioning Game Pass as the future of game distribution. Traditional unit-sales charts arguably undersell that story. EA, for its part, may simply prefer to control its own narrative — announcing player milestones and revenue wins on its own schedule rather than having a slow month publicly dissected.
What It Means for Players
In practical terms, expect future monthly U.S. sales charts to arrive with more asterisks and caveats than ever before. Publishers will still tout their own milestones in press releases and earnings calls, but independent verification just became much harder. Ironically, while visibility into the industry is decreasing, access to games themselves has never been easier — digital storefronts and key marketplaces make picking up new releases, wallet credit, and subscriptions simpler than ever. If you are looking to stock up, TURGAME.com offers Xbox gift cards and game codes at competitive prices, often well below buying direct.
Less data does not automatically mean the industry is struggling — but it does mean the rest of us are now watching it through a much smaller keyhole.
Source: Kotaku