May’s biggest game isn't out yet; April was a HUGE month for games
Launch-to-date data on the games that dominated April, Elden Ring Nightreign’s imminent splash, and other JUICY data drops from Alinea Analytics.
Welcome to the first-ever weekly edition of the Alinea Insight! Without further ado, let’s get into it with a look at some Elden Ring Nightreign metrics.
One to watch: BIG things ahead for Elden Ring Nightreign?
Our recent blog post on the success of Elden Ring shows that FromSoftware’s magnum opus (sorry, Bloodborne fans) has reached a staggering 36 million players across all platforms, with revenues approaching $2 billion. Yes, billion.
There’s a new standalone Elden Ring game coming this week, the $40 PvE Elden Ring Nightreign. Our pre-launch Steam metrics for the title are looking good:
Nightreign has been wishlisted 2.5 million times overall, including by almost 10% of Elden Ring players on Steam.
Over a quarter of wishlisters are in the US, while 8% are in China. If your data provider doesn’t offer Chinese data, you’re missing out. 😉
Nearly 500K Steam users have already bought Nightreign.
While the jury is still out on the quality and retention potential of Nightreign, it’s poised to sell millions – IF it can stick the landing.
Want to see how Nightreign performs across Steam and console? Reply to this email or reach out to us, and we’ll give you a trial of our platform.
And the Elden Ring train doesn’t stop with Nightreign, Tarnished. There’s an a24 Elden Ring movie with Alex Garland (28 Days Later, Civil War) in the works – as well as a Switch 2 port of the original Elden Ring on the horizon.
April 2025’s top Steam games by copies sold
As we outlined in this blogpost, indies, RPGs, and survival games dominated on Steam in April:
Schedule 1 was by far Steam’s April #1, selling 4.7 million. Word of mouth has snowballed since its release at the end of March, when it sold 2.4 million copies. To date, it's sold 8 million copies and generated almost $125 million in revenues. Unlike many other top games on Steam, China only accounts for 0.6% of Schedule 1 players, as the game – for now – only supports English.
R.E.P.O, another indie, took the #2 spot with 3.7 million copies sold. The co-op horror title launched at the end of February and has sold a remarkable 14.1 million copies to date (revenues of over $111.3 million, due to the $10 price) Co-op horror fans mobilised, as over half of R.E.P.O’s players have also played Lethal Company or Phasmophobia.
Oblivion Remastered sold 1.4 million copies on Steam in its launch month. It was a surprise launch, but leaks and rumours meant many core gamers knew it was coming. It’s so close to selling 2 million copies and has generated revenues of $81.5 million. 71.1% of people who played Oblivion Remastered on Steam have also played Skyrim.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was March’s #4 game on Steam with 674K copies sold. Despite being a debut, Expedition 33 is selling faster than JRPGs from iconic studios such as Atlus (Metaphor ReFantazio) and Square Enix (Final Fantasy) on Steam. It’s sold 1.6 million copies on Steam to date, with revenues of $63.9 million.
The Long Dark, an indie first-person survival game that launched in early access over a decade ago, sold 609K copies in April to become the #5 Steam game by copies sold. The Long Dark has been a sleeper hit, gradually accumulating players since its early access launch a decade ago.
Get the full top 10 and analysis right here.
💰BONUS: Here’s April’s Steam top 10 for new releases by REVENUE💰
April 2025’s top PlayStation games by copies sold
Ironically, Xbox dominated PlayStation’s top games in April, accounting for 69% (nice!) of the copies sold in the top 5:
Minecraft shifted 978K copies on PlayStation in April (up almost double from 527K in March), moving the Microsoft-owned game to #1 on PlayStation. And it’s mostly thanks to hype around A Minecraft Movie.
Forza Horizon 5 was April’s #2 game by PlayStation copies sold at 837K, despite officially launching on PlayStation for just two days in April (seven for early access). It’s now sold almost 2 million copies.
FC 25 sold 713K copies on PlayStation in April to become the platform’s #3 game by copies sold. While the success of Forza is PART of the reason FC fell from #2 in March to #3 in April, the comp was a huge month for FC 25 copies sold, thanks to a 70% discount that helped it sell 1.1 million copies in March (50% more than in April)
Oblivion Remastered took #4 with 637K copies sold. The shadow drop attracted plenty of PlayStation players. Most of them (73.2%) have also played Skyrim on PlayStation, again pointing to Skyrim’s legacy being a major driver in the game’s success
Assassin’s Creed Shadows was the month’s #5 best-selling PlayStation game by copies sold, with 358K, bringing its PlayStation 5 copies sold to just shy of 1.8 million. Shadows’ lukewarm launch is showing a moderate long tail, which is still likely not the success story Ubisoft needs on its lead platform.
The BIG story on PlayStation in April was the launch of the biggest former Xbox exclusive yet. So, where does Forza Horizon 5, one of Xbox’s biggest games, fit in among the other Xbox-to-PlayStation launches?
As you can see, it’s selling faster than even Sea of Thieves – the previous winner – by a significant margin. Forza has now even surpassed Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ by copies sold on PS5.
Check out the full top 10 with more data.
We’ll be dropping stats on the PlayStation, Steam, and Xbox performance of Gears of War: Reloaded this summer, so keep your eyes peeled for that!
Other insights, links, and cool stuff
What’s trending on Steam in week 21? Our CEO’s LinkedIn post has you covered. Spoiler: you’ve probably never heard of the top game.
We recently spoke to IGN about rising game prices. We chat about tariffs, variable pricing, and the future of premium price points in games.
Push Square covered our player estimates for Doom: The Dark Ages. Great game, by the way. Rip, tear, and all that.
114 industry leaders came to watch our panel with Rhys Elliott (that’s me, referring to myself in third person…), Michael Pachter, and Catalin Alexandru. It was a fantastic event, and we can’t wait to meet more of you at gamescom 2025!
What the Alinea team is playing right now
Marcus: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (‘‘So excited for the Switch 2 next week that he won’t stop playing his Switch 1; also plays Smash weekly anyway’’)
Rhys: Monster Train 2 (‘‘For fans of Slay the Spire and one-more-go sleepless nights’’)
Rickard: Peppa Pig (‘‘Dad life…’’)
Viktor: Cauldron (‘‘If you love minigames, upgrading stuff, and turn-based RPGs, you’ll love Cauldron's concoction of all three’’)
The last word
Got any requests for games, trends, or games industry topics you want covered in upcoming newsletters? Reply to this email – and we’ll see what we can do!
The first subscriber who replies gets a shoutout in next week’s newsletter.😉
[Alinea Analytics boasts the most accurate PC and console estimates in the business. Game makers use our platform to understand their audience, keep an eye on the competition, monitor sales trends, and spot new opportunities. We equip game studios and financial institutions with accurate data and the confidence to make smarter, data-driven decisions. Want to talk all things games market data? We’d love to chat!]