Circana analyst Matt Piscatella has shared the top 15 games by total active weekly users for the first week of December. It looks like the usual suspects, Fortnite, Call of Duty HQ (CoD’s unified launcher for all games), and GTA V are leading the charge. Over here at Operation Sports, we naturally care about sports games more, so it’s good to see them retain their spots in the top 15.
For PlayStation in the US, NBA 2K26 remains at the 5th spot (no change over last week), Madden 26 is at 10 (no change), and WWE 2K25 is at 11 (no change). Surprisingly, NBA 2K25 still has a lot of weekly active users, landing in the 15th spot. However, it did drop a bit, as it was at the 13th spot in the last week of November.
On the Xbox Side, NBA 2K26 is at the 7th spot (no change), Rocket League at the 10th spot (no change), and Madden 26 at 13 (dropped from 11). Please note that these are all numbers from the US.
The Heavy Hitters
Despite the influx of holiday titles and hardware sales fluctuations seen recently, major sports titles did not budge this week at all. However, you’ll note that EA FC 26 is not in Circana’s top 15 games by active weekly users, mainly because the list focuses on the US market. This level of stability goes to show just how dominant sports sims can be, where players log in weekly regardless of what else is launching.
Engagement matters a lot right now, especially when there are so many new titles for sports fans to pivot to. For example, I believe many FC 26 players are casually enjoying Battlefield 6 at the same time. While console sales may have been low in November, at least publishers can be assured that overall engagement remains high. We’re seeing massive changes in the industry these days, with subscription services, cloud gaming, and PC handhelds changing up the market. Still, for sports games, the community isn’t going anywhere, even if the way you buy your games changes.
