New data shows everyone's playing shooters now – and Pokémon Legends: ZA 'underperforms' compared to Arceus
Blog Andrew Joseph 22 Nov , 2025 0
Everyone is playing shooters right now, at least according to some new data Newzoo shared with IGN.
Newzoo's revenue forecast covers digital full game purchases, including but not limited to DLC, subscriptions and microtransactions, and it has released revenue and MAU (monthly active users) for the top 20 PC and console games in October in the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Gosh, there are a lot of shooters on the list! Battlefield 6One month after it was launched, it ranked first in the revenue list and ranked third in monthly active users. although Dominance of the battlefield has been well documentedConsidering that Battlefield only launched for a week in October, this is still an impressive feat.
It is worth noting that although the “Call of Duty” series of games ranks ninth on the revenue list, its number of monthly active users ranks second, ahead of “Battlefield”. Still, Warfield only has one week compared to a full month for Call of Duty, so the real test will be when Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 takes on Warfield's November numbers. Monthly active users are a better comparison metric for Call of Duty, given its popularity on Xbox Game Pass.
Breakout escape shooter Arc Raiders debuted at No. 7 in revenue and No. 18 in monthly active users, again hampered somewhat by the fact that it was only released for two days during the October reporting period, so we should see a clearer picture of its success in November as well.
In addition to these new games, there are many common games: “Counter-Strike 2” ranks 8th in revenue, 9th in monthly active users, “Fortnite” ranks 3rd in revenue, and ranks 1st in monthly active users, and only in the monthly active user rankings: “GTA 5” ranks 7th, “Hell Dire 2” ranks 16th, “Borderlands 4” ranks 17th, “Apex Legends” ranks 19th, and “Overwatch” ranks 7th. 20. Those are just shooters; Roblox, Minecraft, Valorant, League of Legends, and sports games of the year are still going strong. It's as challenging as ever for new games to break the dominance of a handful of live streaming service giants that consume vast swaths of viewers' time, attention and money.
There are some face-offs in monster role-playing games this month, Pokémon Legends: ZA Ranked 5th in revenue, 15th in monthly active users, and “Digimon Story Time Strangers” ranked 13th in revenue. There's no doubt that Pokémon will win this battle, but Newzoo noted that ZA “underperformed compared to Legends: Arceus,” which could indicate some hesitation, or perhaps caution, about moving to a real-time, action-based battle system Scarlet and Violet status after launch. It’s worth noting that Pokémon Legends: ZA is launching on Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 as a cross-generation game.
Nintendo’s official sales data shows that “Pokemon: ZA” sold nearly 6 million copies in its first week. Pokémon Legends: ZA launched on October 16 and has sold 5.8 million copies worldwide, about half of which were purchased for Switch 2. This means that the first Pokémon game to feature real-time Pokémon battles became the fifth-best-selling game in the series in terms of first-week sales. By comparison, this is worse than the first week performance of Pokémon X/Y and Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee, but not as good as Pokémon Crimson/Violet, Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and Pokémon Sword/Shield.
IGN’s Pokémon Legends: ZA review Return 8/10. We said: “Pokémon Legends: ZA finally feels like Game Freak taking a big step forward in the Pokémon 3D era, with a fun environment to explore, a well-written story, and an overhauled battle system that works surprisingly well.”
Top 20 PC and Console Games by Revenue in October 2025
(Data covers the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain)
- Battlefield 6/Redsec (New)
- EA Sports FC 26
- fortnite
- Soul of the Goat (New)
- Pokemon Legends: ZA (New)
- NBA 2K 26
- Arc Raider (New)
- Counter-Strike 2 and GO
- Call of Duty: MW2/MW3/WZ/BO6
- EA Sports NFL 26
- The Sims 4
- minecraft
- Digimon Story Time Strangers (New)
- Valuation
- Super Mario Galaxy 2 (New)
- Roblox
- League of Legends
- Jurassic World: Evolution 3 (New)
- world of warcraft
- Marvel Rivals
Top 20 PC and console games by MAU in October 2025
(Data covers the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain)
- fortnite
- Call of Duty: MW2/MW3/WZ/BO6
- Battlefield 6/Redsec (New)
- Roblox
- minecraft
- skate.
- Grand Theft Auto V
- rocket league
- Counter-Strike 2 and GO
- EA Sports FC 26
- Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege
- Marvel Rivals
- NBA 2K26
- EA Sports FC 25
- Pokemon Legends: ZA (New)
- Hellraiser 2
- Borderlands 4
- Arc Raider (New)
- apex legend
- Overwatch 1 and 2
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter at IGN. Have a story tip? Send it to [email protected].