Star Wars: Battlefront 2, a game that came out in 2017, shot up to become the 12th best-selling game in the U.S. by dollar sales for the month of May, likely thanks to renewed interest from fans of the TV series Andor.

This data comes from analytics firm Circana, which puts Battlefront 2 at No. 12 for the month of May, up from No. 135 the month before. Popularity of Battlefront 2 spiked in May thanks to Andor and other Andor-related Star Wars promotions, giving the game the best Steam player count it's seen in years, aided by Andor actor Ben Amor's calls for a Battlefront 3 on social media.

"The player surge for Battlefront 2 started with Revenge of the Sith's 20th anniversary re-release back in early May, then really picked up with Andor," Circana analyst Mat Piscatella confirmed to IGN. "Players peaked in the week of May 25 and then started to fall back a bit. There was another bump in mid- to late- June as the game was put into various sales and things as well but that's a story for two weeks from now."

Elden Ring: Nightreign, meanwhile, debuted at the top of the charts for May, and became the 11th best-selling game of 2025 so far, topping the PlayStation, Xbox, and PC storefronts. When we asked Piscatella for comment, he noted that Elden Ring: Nightreign and the original Elden Ring weren't really comparable sales-wise, due to being very different games sold at very different prices. "That being said, Nightreign launch unit sales did not reach the same neighborhood as those of Elden Ring."

It was followed closely by debut game Doom: The Dark Ages at No. 2, which is also now the 16th best-selling game of 2025. As with Nightreign, The Dark Ages didn't hit the sales heights of its predecessor, Doom: Eternal, but according to Piscatella, "this is more timing than anything. Doom Eternal launched in March 2020... and nothing is going to ever comp well to any new game that launched in March of 2020."

New games F1 25 and Capcom Fighting Collection 2 debuted at No. 15 and No. 19, respectively.

Overall, spending on video game content was up 2% year-over-year to $3.7 billion, largely driven by subscription spending on non-mobile platforms, according to analysis by Circana.

Hardware spending dropped by 13% year-over-year in May, to $172 million, with Nintendo Switch dollar sales dropping 44%, Xbox Series dropping 30%, and PlayStation growing 3%. The PlayStation 5 was the best-selling hardware in both unit sales and dollars. Next month's charts for June will show the impact of the Nintendo Switch 2's release on this landscape.

Overall, video game spending was up 1% year-over-year to $4.1 billion.

May 2025 U.S. Top 20 Best-Selling Games:

1. Elden Ring: Nightreign (NEW)
2. Doom: The Dark Ages (NEW)
3. Forza Horizon 5
4. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Remastered
5. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
6. MLB: The Show 25*
7. Minecraft*
8. Grand Theft Auto V
9. NBA 2K25
10. EA Sports FC 25
11. Assassin's Creed: Shadows
12. Star Wars: Battlefront II
13. Split Fiction
14. Red Dead Redemption II
15. F1 25 (NEW)
16. Helldivers II
17. The Last of Us: Part II
18. WWE 2K25
19. Capcom Fighting Collection 2 (NEW)
20. PGA Tour 2K25

* Indicates that some or all digital sales are not included in Circana's data. Some publishers, including Nintendo, do not share certain digital data for this report.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

In a densely packed summer movie season, James Gunn's Superman is easily one of the most hotly anticipated releases. But if you want a real deep dive into the development of this ambitious reboot, you'll want to pick up Abrams Books' Superman: The Art and Making of the Film.

IGN can exclusively debut a new excerpt from Superman: The Art and Making of the Film. Check it out in the slideshow gallery below:

Superman: The Art and Making of the Film is written by James Fields, who previously penned The Art of The Batman. The book also features an introduction by Gunn and a foreword by Superman actor David Corenswet.

This 176-page book features a wealth of concept art and unit photography, showcasing character and costume designs, sets, and other elements of the film. It also features extensive interviews with the cast and crew, offering insight into the production of the film as well as the early development of Gunn and Peter Safran's DCU.

Superman: The Art and Making of the Film is priced at $50 and will be released on November 18, 2025. You can preorder the book on Amazon.

IGN also recently got an exclusive look at Abrams' X-Men '97: The Art and Making of the Animated Series.

For more on Superman, check out the utterly bizarre history of Superman's powers and see our ranking of the live-action Superman films released so far.

Excerpt from the upcoming book Superman: The Art and Making of the Film (Abrams) by James Field, available wherever books are sold on November 18, 2025

Copyright (C) 2025 DC and Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.

The actor behind Squid Game hero Gi-hun (Player 456) has discussed how he prepared for his character's final scenes mentally and physically — including by losing 22 pounds to show the toll being taken.

Warning: Spoilers for Squid Game Season 3 follow.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Korean star Lee Jung-jae said Gi-hun's last scene was "without a doubt, the most challenging" to shoot of the entire series, requiring he mentally prepare for the character's toughest choice, and physically show the stress he had been under.

"To get that scene just right — all of the effort that went into mentally preparing for it and maintaining that psychological state — all of that process was really not easy," Jung-jae said. "Physically, I had gone on a very strict diet for about 14 months, which actually got more strict by the day, up until the day we shot Gi-hun's final scene."

"Over that time," he continued, "I lost about 10 kilograms (22 pounds). I wanted to portray the character in a way where, even if you just saw Gi-hun standing there, you'd be able to feel how much anguish and pain he was going through."

Within Squid Game's final two seasons, which tell one continuous story and were filmed back-to-back, an increasingly desperate Gi-hun re-enters the series' deadly tournament with a plan to bring it down from the inside, but repeatedly fails to upend the plans of its organiser, Front Man.

Gi-hun is on a self-imposed quest to demonstrate the humanity of his fellow players, but can never convince a majority to end the games early. The biggest blow to Gi-hun then comes after the character stages an armed coup, not realising Front Man himself has sabotaged his plans. The loss of numerous allies, including Gi-hun's childhood friend, sends the character into a near-catatonic state — with the hero barely uttering a line throughout the third season's opening episodes.

But, by the series finale, Gi-hun has rallied himself somewhat, after being made the protector of a newborn baby. It's something of an abrupt change and, Jung-jae said the infant's introduction was initially a shock when first reading the season's scripts.

"When I first read that part in the script, it was such a horrible page to read — very painful," Jung-jae recalled. "I thought, 'How did [Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk] come up with this?! Why have a baby be born under such cruel circumstances?'

"I believe it was the birth of the baby that sparked something again in Gi-hun. I think if not for the baby, Gi-hun probably would have just let go — maybe even of his own life. But with the birth of the baby, he had something he wanted to protect."

Lastly, Jung-jae said he agreed with his character's fate — his sacrifice that ensures the baby lives and ultimately survives the season as the games' winner. Asked whether he had discussed an alternative plan — an option that might have seen Gi-hun survive — with the show's creator, Jung-jae said he had trusted in the ending that viewers ultimately saw.

"If this project had been more focused just on the entertainment side of being a death-game genre, I don't think the director would have wanted to end it this way," Jung-jae concluded. "But Squid Game is different. It's not just spectacle — it's about the themes of our inner humanity and societal relationships. I think Director Hwang wanted a very clear and complete ending — one that fits his overall message — even if it meant signaling that there won't be a season four. I believe he felt strongly that Gi-hun's final decision was the right end for his arc."

Squid Game Season 3 has launched to a mixed viewer response but record-breaking viewership overall, sparking speculation that Netflix will pick up on its finale tease for a U.S.-based spin-off.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

The live service bloodbath continues — this time the casualty is Steel Hunters, the mech shooter game from the people behind World of Tanks.

Steel Hunters launched on April 2 in early access form on Steam. Some had hoped for Titanfall vibes from this free-to-play, PvPvE shooter, but it fell completely flat. And just three months later, developer Wargaming has announced plans to sunset the game.

In a post addressing Steel Hunter’s community, Wargaming said the game’s servers will live on for another three months before the game goes dark permanently from October 8.

“Today we share difficult news: we've made the decision to sunset Steel Hunters,” Wargaming’s statement began. “You've given us so much passion and support but unfortunately we've come to the conclusion that continuing development is not sustainable. We know this isn't the news anyone wanted to hear and we genuinely share in your disappointment.”

So what went wrong? Amid the difficulties so many live service games have endured in recent times, Steel Hunters failed to capture an audience. It launched on Steam with a peak of 4,479 concurrent players and a ‘mixed’ user review rating, and it was downhill from there. At the time of this article’s publication, the 24-hour peak was 97, with just 52 concurrent players — that’s devastating for any free-to-play game.

The top user review on Steam, from a player with over 300 hours on Steel Hunters including its various pre-launch forms, lamented the potential of the game, and praised its mech design and maps. However, they critisized Wargaming's lack of a roadmap, slow pace of updates, and various bugs.

"Early access should have never happened," they said. "We should have never left beta. Time and time again the players have been vocal about changes or fixes that were needed and have come to the table with very helpful solutions only to be met with 'we are moving forward' only to then react with 'why did it go south?'"

Live service video games are enduring a tough time right now, with a number of titles falling by the wayside or finding themselves canceled before launch. Sony’s Concord is perhaps the highest-profile example of that, a PlayStation disaster that cost the gaming business hundreds of millions of dollars. But only last week, Microsoft canceled an unannounced MMORPG from the developer of The Elder Scrolls Online, resulting in hundreds of layoffs.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

The Last of Us and Intergalatic: The Heretic Prophet development chief, Neil Druckmann, is enjoying his time away from the HBO series by indulging in a LEGO set based on the latter's spaceship.

Last month, 2Bricks — who specializes in custom (MOC) LEGO builds — released a YouTube video documenting a custom build of "a sleek Porsche-designed red ship" inspired by the next Naughty Dog game franchise, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. And apparently, it caught the eye of one very intrigued fan.

I've been covering Amazon Prime Day sales for years now and some of the most popular deals are always Kindle deals. As someone who owns two of them now, I can definitely see why. With the e-Ink display and access to thousands of books, they are by far the best reading tablet I've ever used. And despite Amazon owning the devices, the retailer has consistently been stingy with their Kindle discounts over the years.

In 2025 that is not the case at all, though. Amazon has dropped prices on the entire Kindle lineup and these are the best deals I've ever seen on the latest models. If you've been waiting for Prime Day to pick up one of these popular e-readers for yourself or a loved one, I can honestly say there's never been a better time to do so.

The Best Kindle Deals at Amazon Today

Like I mentioned above, the entire Kindle lineup is currently discounted for Prime Day. These are the latest 2024 models, and these prices are the absolute lowest we've ever seen them go. The Paperwhite sitting at $125 is unheard of and actually cheaper than it was during Black Friday last year. Meanwhile, the standard Kindle for $85 is pretty much a steal, and a great place to start if you're just looking for an entry level e-reader. The closest competitor that offers similar technology would be Barnes & Noble's Nook, which is actually $50 more for essentially the same thing.

Which Kindle should you buy?

If you've never used a Kindle before, you may be wondering which one is right for you. The answer to that really comes down to what sort of functionality you're looking for. First up, there are the three standard e-ink reading tablets: Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite, and Kindle Paperwhite Kids. All of these pretty much function the same if you're just looking to read some words, so the main difference is the size of the screen and added accessories. The Kindle Paperwhite deal is what I'd recommend because it has a larger 7-inch screen, but if you have smaller hands then the regular Kindle works just fine for a lot cheaper. The kids' version of this tablet is pretty much the same thing, but with the option for parental controls and a free case.

Then there's the other two higher-end Kindle models: Kindle Colorsoft and Kindle Scribe. The new Colorsoft is a great choice if you're specifically looking to use the device to read comics or graphic novels. It's the only full-color Kindle currently available. The Scribe is what I'd recommend if you plan on using it as a notebook, rather than just an e-reader. It's great for taking notes or writing down ideas as you read or review documents.

Consider Taking Advantage of Kindle Unlimited

Dune: Awakening developer Funcom has apologized after "patching out" a layout change in the Deep Desert that briefly transformed PvE territory into PvP, leading to "an unfortunate amount of lost bases and equipment."

Yesterday, Funcom released another patch for Dune: Awakening, with more tweaks to improve the endgame experience for players who'd prefer to spend time in PvE activities, including the ability to farm Tier 6 resources and a better chance of getting Unique drops in PvE loot in Deep Desert.

It follows on-going efforts from the developer to improve PvP in the Deep Desert after an AMA revealed many players branded the endgame "toxic" due to griefing even after the ability for players to squish each other with their Ornithopter was supposedly patched out. Later, griefers intentionally landed their Ornis on other players' own thopters to prevent them from farming.

However, the change — which was "intended to only occur with the next Coriolis cycle and not impact the ongoing cycle" — resulted in an "oversight in the development process and internal communications," resulting in heavy losses for some players.

"We're incredibly sorry that this happened and we want to acknowledge that this should have been handled better. We’ve changed our internal processes as a result of this and will be better in the future," the team said in a statement.

"We are working to reimburse vehicles and items (to the best of our ability) to players who were impacted by this. You can expect the reimbursed materials, items, and vehicle components to show up in the in-game ‘Claim Rewards’ tab by the end of this week."

In the same statement, the team also revealed it was working hard to eliminate cheaters from Arrakis, writing, "our primary focus, which continues over the next weeks and months, will be to remove all identified exploits (third party cheat engines, client hacks, or in-game exploitation of game mechanics). In addition, we will be hard at work improving the game, adding quality of life features, and addressing critical gameplay issues.

"We have zero tolerance for the type of player behavior that has an impact on the experience of other players, and we will continue to focus on ensuring that players can enjoy the game as it is intended," the statement added. "If you see someone cheating or exploiting, please report them to us using the available reporting channels."

Funcom said that so far it has taken action on "several hundred" cheats caught using exploits, cheats, and hacks, with "more waves of bans coming as we identify further culprits."

"We have a team dedicated exclusively to fighting hackers and fixing exploits. Over the next few patches, they will be introducing additional efforts to prevent exploits by increasing security on several client/server communication layer, performing additional penetration testing against common attack vectors, and auditing our item and inventory systems to make sure they are resistant to item duplication," Funcom stated.

Finally, the team also apologized to players who had lost "vehicles or other resources" due to in-game bugs. Though admitting some issues are hard to replicate and resolve, Funcom said it is now working on tools to "better reimburse players for vehicle losses due to bugs."

Dune: Awakening has enjoyed a superb launch, with a 'very positive' user review rating on Steam. Within hours of going live on June 10, Funcom's survival MMO had clocked up over 142,000 concurrent players on Valve's platform, and hit a new high earlier this month of 189,333 players. And it's already clocked up over 1 million players, too, making it Funcom's fastest-selling game ever, and securing a Great 8/10 in our review.

If all that's got you interested but you're not sure where to start, make sure to check out all the Dune: Awakening classes you can choose from, and our Dune: Awakening walkthrough for a step-by-step guide to the story. We've also got Dune: Awakening resource guides that'll help you find iron, steel, aluminium, and a Dune: Awakening Trainers locations guide to help you survive on Arrakis.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Amazon has been delivering price cuts on its gaming products left and right for the Prime Day sale this week, but this deal on a 256GB microSD Express Card is a huge surprise, especially for Nintendo Switch 2 owners.

Normally £49, the 256GB Sandisk model microSD Express Card has been dropped to £45.49, while the 128GB version has gone from £41.99 to £39.98. While these are only 7% and 5% price cuts, respectively, these are still considered bargain prices given the scarcity of deals on microSD Express cards in general.

A little bit of Mario Kart trivia for you — what is the one Nintendo track you can't play anywhere but the series' smartphone spin-off Mario Kart Tour?

The answer is Piranha Plant Pipeline, a fun, waterslide-esque level set within the bowels of various Mushroom Kingdom warp pipes that for some reason never got ported over into Switch entry Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

Mario Kart Tour's lengthy track roster is a mix of classic tracks and new courses that also arrived in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as part of the game's Booster Course Pass. These included Squeaky Clean Sprint, a level partially set in a toilet, and Sky-High Sundae, which was immediately brought back for Switch 2 as part of Mario Kart World's open-world map.

For unknown reasons, Piranha Plant Pipeline never made the jump to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and because of Mario Kart Tour's rotating track selection it is only rarely playable. Indeed, Nintendo celebrated the track's return with a post today on X/Twitter, while Nintendo Life notes that the course's reappearance now marks only the third time it has ever been playable, and its first appearance this year.

"Well hello Piranha Plant Pipeline," one fan wrote. "Missed you so much."

If you want to try out what may be Mario Kart's rarest track, you have until 22nd July to do it, before Piranha Plant Pipeline goes back in Nintendo's content vault.

Could we ever see it return in another Mario Kart game? Much will likely depend on Nintendo's plans to keep Mario Kart World fresh over the coming years — something the company is currently keeping schtum on. Fans strongly suspect that Nintendo will at some point detail a post-launch content roadmap for its hugely-popular Switch 2 launch title, though Nintendo is yet to say anything of how it may keep its racer refreshed over the coming generation.

The Pipe Tour starts today and it features Piranha Plant Pipeline! #MarioKartTour pic.twitter.com/6X76J0X7w0

— Mario Kart Tour (@mariokarttourEN) July 9, 2025

Indeed, Nintendo's only major update to Mario Kart World so far has been its unpopular move to further limit the chances of racing on the franchise's standard looped courses, rather than so-called open-world 'intermission tracks'.

While Nintendo wrapped up launching new content for Mario Kart Tour back in 2023, the game remains playable on iPhone and Android devices. Originally launched in 2019, Mario Kart Tour made millions for Nintendo, though its gacha-style system for unlocking characters and karts was heavily criticised, and was later removed.

Nintendo smartphone has a mixed track record on keeping its smartphone games online, with several notable titles such as Miitomo, Draglia Lost and Dr. Mario World no longer playable. The original free-to-play version of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp was shutdown, meanwhile, but replaced with a pricey paid-for alternative. Should Mario Kart Tour ever get retired, Piranha Plant Pipeline will disappear forever with it — so maybe give it a go now, while you can.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social