Skate leads September's top games by downloads on PlayStation, Steam, and Xbox
Plus, the good, the bad, and the ugly of the $55 billion Electronic Arts deal – and a comparison of week-1 sales for 2025’s sports titles.
September was a big downloads month for heavy-hitters across Xbox, PlayStation, and Steam, with some long-awaited titles finally surfacing – and one legacy franchise blowing up.
Let’s dive into September’s downloads top 10 before tackling the year’s biggest gaming news so far: Electronic Arts going private.
The top three: Skateboarding, soccer, and Silksong
Speaking of Electronic Arts, two of its titles took the top 2 spots in September’s download chart. EA’s Skate (#1) has had an incredible comeback. Fifteen years after Skate 3, Skate’s free-to-play reboot launched in early access last month after an extended period of preview builds.
While critical consensus has been mixed, Skate acid-dropped into a gnarly 14 million downloads across all platforms last month.
This represents one of the biggest single-month launches we’ve tracked this year. Its free-to-play live-service model has clearly worked:
It’s attracting lapsed fans from the old trilogy: Comments on EA’s Instagram asking for Skate’s return have long been a meme – seriously, every video had hundreds of ‘’skate 4’’ comments. I thought it was mostly a joke, but several millions of folks have shown up in earnest.
Pulling in new audiences via low barriers to entry and shareable short-video content on TikTok (such content from Skate 3 has been active on the platform for years, another reason for the remake’s green light). The developers really played into the ridiculous physics, and the streamer bait is paying off.
Hitting majorly with console players: As of today, Skate has pulled in over 14 million players. Owing to its legacy on console (including Game Pass inclusion), its Xbox numbers have trumped its Steam numbers, with console accounting for 75.4% of players (46.2% on PlayStation and 29.1% on Xbox) and Steam accounting for the remaining 24.7%, which you can see below in the Alinea platform screenshot:
Meanwhile, EA FC 26 took #2 with almost 9 million downloads, continuing its run as the game to beat in the AAA sports genre.
PlayStation accounted for the lion’s share of the downloads (67.5%), followed by Xbox’s 26.9%. Steam accounted for just 5.7% – or, around 500K players. Despite small upticks, traditional sports games are still struggling to penetrate on PC relative to other genres.
But they’re thriving on console.
FC 26 is selling faster than other 2025 sports games (and its predecessor) on PlayStation
Looking at launch-aligned release data for FC’s lead platform (PlayStation), FC 26 is selling faster than its predecessor and faster than 2025’s other AAA licensed sports games:
As you can see, FC 26 sold way more copies in a week than NBA, College Football, MLB The Show, and Madden did combined. It’s also selling 1.4x faster than last year’s FC 25 did after a week.
But week one is always top-heavy for Ultimate Team players, who pump in the hours (and the cash) early to give their teams a winning chance online.
We’ll be returning to this sports data in subsequent newsletters, so hit subscribe below for free to get it first.
AAA has dominated September’s download list, but the long wait for Silksong planted an indie flag on the September top 5. The Hollow Knight sequel, whose launch we covered here, easily amassed over 6 million downloads in the last three weeks of last month.
Steam accounted for 4 million of those downloads, while console accounted for the remainder. Xbox tripled PlayStation’s download numbers due to Silksong’s Game Pass inclusion.
Did you know that our platform has data on how many players accessed a game via Game Pass or PlayStation Plus? Reach out here for a demo.
More sports, shooters, and a couple of indie hits round off September’s downloads list
NBA 2K26 slam-dunked 3.5 million downloads, ranking fourth overall. 2K’s early-access strategy once again worked, as half of the game’s players came in the one-week early access period.
This is quite the upsell, as that access was gated for those who didn’t pay at least $100 for the Superstar Edition.
Elsewhere, Borderlands 4 cracked into the top 5 with 3.1 million downloads. While not as explosive as its predecessors, Borderlands 4’s strong Steam uptake and steady console sales suggest it’s positioned for long legs – once the discounts start coming in, that is.
Luckily, our wishlist data shows there are still plenty of players in price-sensitive markets waiting to bite the bullet (and then shoot it, from their gun, in Borderlands 4 – sorry).
As for the rest of the top 10:
Delta Force (#6) continued to hang around the charts, adding nearly 2 million free-to-play downloads across platforms (almost a million via PlayStation).
Dying Light: The Beast (#7) also amassed almost 2 million downloads, as the standalone expansion continued its strong performance from earlier in the month. It’s now sold over 2 million units across all platforms.
Arena Breakout Infinite (#8), a free-to-play extraction shooter, launched on Steam last month, a year after its non-Steam PC release. During that year, the title amassed over 2 million wishlists on Steam and most converted to players during the launch month. The jury is still out on the long-term potential of Arena Breakout, but early retention metrics seem promising for this niche title.
PEAK (#9) continued to climb to new heights, with over a million downloads last month on Steam alone. The hit co-op climbing title has crossed 12 million copies sold and revenues of $70 million since launching in June.
Stardew Valley (#10) also harvested over a million downloads across platforms last month. Over 67% of these came via PlayStation, as Stardew was one of September’s PS Plus games. That said, it’s also one of those games that’ll never keep selling, driven by ongoing word of mouth and intermittent discounts. To that end, Stardew sold 350K copies on Steam last month.
That’s the download chart done, so let’s tackle this week’s biggest gaming news.
The good, the bad, and the ugly of EA’s $55 billion buyout
Electronic Arts is going private in a $55B leveraged buyout (LBO), the biggest ever, backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners’ Jared Kushner (Trump’s son-in-law). It’s $36B in equity, with ~$20B in junk-rated debt (single-B). It’s expected to close in 2027. And to me (Rhys), it can be seen as one giant geopolitical statement dressed up as a business deal.
The deal is a shock for sure, but it’s also not necessarily a surprise. Gaming is infrastructure, not just entertainment. Infrastructure can be bought — not just by tech giants – but by regimes.
Before we get into the good, bad, and the ugly, let’s start very high level:
Is this good for investors? In the short term, yes. Long term is less certain, though.
Is this good for employees? Generally speaking, yes for the minority of share-owning employees. But no for the majority of employees, who don’t own shares. (especially after year one, when the cost-cutting will begin in earnest)
Is this good for the industry? Consolidation is bad for competition, but this deal will be no worse for the industry than the Xbox acquisition death march and Ubisoft’s recent nepotism-fuelled passing of the baton.
Let’s zoom in a bit.
The good?
Creative breathing room (theoretically, anyway): Going private removes the quarterly earnings circus. In a perfect world, this means less bureaucratic sludge, faster greenlighting, and actual creative risk-taking. Yet, the $20 billion in debt looming over this transaction flies in the face of this advantage.
Capital infusion from a consistent buyer: Whether you love it or hate it, Saudi money is gaming’s biggest liquidity engine right now.
Strategic synergies, especially in sports: Silver Lake is deeply tied into global sports franchises (Manchester City ownership, for example). Meanwhile, the PIF has been known to sportswash via its major stakes in esports, soccer, golf, and wrestling. Now it’s set its sights on the world’s premier interactive sports IP machine. There’s commercial logic in vertically integrating content, leagues, and distribution.
Financial winners: EA is now at $210 per share (vs pre-deal trading at $160ish and all-time high of $179), so every longtime EA stockholder – including some employees – just saw a massive payday. Banks like JPMorgan will also come out on top, milking those underwriting fees. Wall Street, ugh, always finds a way (to make money).
Liquidity Path via Silver Lake: However, what I think is really happening here is that Silver Lake can quietly re-list their stake in a few years, keeping the Saudis in control while still giving themselves an exit. Trojan horse.
EA’s business model is 75% live services. That means recurring revenue, which PE loves as it smooths out cash flow modelling (easier debt servicing).
However, that debt is a MOUNTAIN, which brings us to ...
The bad?
$20B in debt is a ticking time bomb. While EA’s cash flow ($2 billion to $2.5 billion) can certainly contribute to serving this debt, $20 billion in junk-rated (single-B) debt is a looming shadow. And in LBO land, this kind of debt often means ‘’efficiencies’’, which is PR spin for mass layoffs and cuts.
Expect layoffs, departures, and cuts: Probably deep ones. Many of the cuts will happen outside of the money-making sports games (but nothing will be safe from the efficiency cuts). Anything non-service or slow-building will be on the chopping block first. There will also be talent who willingly leaves – especially creatives who disagree fundamentally with Saudi Arabia’s alleged human rights violations.
IP sales and studio divestitures are on the table. Many of the cost-cutters will ask themselves, “Why keep a $200 million RPG team when FIFA cards print cash?’’ Single-player studios like BioWare (Mass Effect) and Motive (Iron Man) are in most trouble. BioWare was arguably already in management’s crosshairs before this buyout. Add the studio’s LGBTQI+-friendly nature and its themes on human rights into the mix, and this could spell trouble.
While this won’t be the bloodbath that was Toys “R” Us…, the same playbook applies. LBOs always start with “efficiencies”, but they also always end with org charts full of red lines.
The ugly?
Looking at this deal as a typical strip-and-flip PE operation misses the point. A major part of this deal is Saudi statecraft via cultural consolidation. While Silver Lake is the face, PIF’s hand is on the steering wheel.
They already own sizable chunks of Nintendo, Capcom, Take-Two, Embracer, Scopely, Niantic, ESL FACEIT, multiple soccer clubs, LIV Golf, and now they’ve captured the world’s most culturally influential sports IP factory.
We already mentioned the human-rights conversation. Saudi Arabia wants to reshape global perception around its human-rights issues and to set itself up for the future as the world moves away from oil long term. It’s doing this through the world’s most accessible cultural medium: video games, and EA is part of that.
This deal was also controversially brokered through Jared Kushner (Donald Trump’s son-in-law), whose firm is funded with $2 billion from PIF despite some internal objections.
The U.S. Senate has already raised concerns about conflicts of interest and foreign influence. Now Kushner’s positioned to profit from one of America’s largest soft-power exports.
So that’s the good, bad, and ugly of this buyout. But there are still a lot of what-ifs:
Will Saudi influence creep into EA FC, Battlefield, or The Sims? And will The Sims and Mass Effect – franchises built on diversity – stay untouched?
Will LGBTQ+ content in general be quietly toned down?
Will beloved studios be preserved – or politically repurposed?
The jury is very much still out. But one thing is certain: this buyout is unprecedented. It’s not just another PE flip, and this story will continue to develop. Want to learn more as we get more information? Hit subscribe below for our ongoing take.
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