"In short, yes," Howard told BBC Newsbeat. "Fallout 5 will be existing in a world where the stories and events of the show happened or are happening. We are taking that into account."
The Fallout TV show, which is set after all the existing Fallout video games, has sparked much debate within the fandom. Questions on how it fits into the overarching Fallout timeline and whether it makes particular video game endings canon have dominated discussion in the run up to each season’s release. Indeed, Fallout Season 2 had left fans wondering about the fate of New Vegas following the events of the video game, although the show’s creators have avoided making a clear call.
What Howard is confirming here is that TV show characters such as Lucy, Maximus, and The Ghoul and the events of the show must now be factored into Fallout 5, although we don’t know when or where the game will be set. Could either actually appear in Fallout 5? It sounds like it’s possible, but we’ll have to see what happens in the show itself.
It’s worth remembering that we’re guaranteed Fallout Season 3, and the hope is there will be more seasons after that. There’s a long way to go before the show wraps up, and there’s a long way to go before Fallout 5 comes out. In the meantime, could Bethesda follow The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered and release a remaster of Fallout 3 or New Vegas, or perhaps even a Fallout: New Vegas 2 as a stop gap? In a recent interview with IGN, Howard remained coy on the possibility.
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.
It’s a term used to describe a huge amount of games released every year, but what does “action-adventure” even mean? It’s a good question. Here at IGN, we classify any game that fuses combat with a genuine sense of exploration as action-adventure. They often take place in open worlds, but that’s not a mandatory requirement (see the likes of Uncharted and God of War), and so this flexible format allows for a wide range of different projects to make the cut this year, from the tightly crafted co-op platforming action of Split Fiction and the vast, isolated, do-it-yourself atmosphere of Death Stranding 2, to the adventures of banana-hunting apes and revenge-seeking ronin. So let’s get on with it as swiftly as a Hornet and reveal the runners-up and ultimate winner of our award for the Best Action-Adventure Game of 2025.
Runner-Up - Split Fiction
Following on from the wonderful It Takes Two, developer Hazelight took things to the next level when it comes to scale in Split Fiction and continued to hone its craft as the modern-day masters of the co-op game. Much of its story is spent platforming and puzzle-solving, but a healthy amount is also reserved for combat against its many varied sci-fi and fantasy-laced foes, as well as exploration of its larger-scale levels. It never once stands still, constantly evolving and switching up its mechanical ideas to match each world’s colourful set dressing. That sense of exciting propulsion along an ever-changing journey, balanced with areas designed for you to slow down a little and hunt for secrets and surprising side missions, is what makes Split Fiction one of our top five action-adventure games of the year.
Runner-Up - Ghost of Yotei
Perhaps the most traditional “action-adventure” on our list, Ghost of Yotei follows in a long line of PlayStation Studio exclusives that firmly fit that mold. Telling the story of revenge-seeking wandering Ronin, Atsu, Yotei takes everything that made people fall in love with its predecessor, Ghost of Tsushima, and tweaks it for the better. Where action is concerned, its slick sword, spear, and kusarigama combat is a real star of the show, with new-age weaponry such as firearms also brought into the mix to expand this ghost’s arsenal. In terms of adventure, 17th-century Hokkaido plays stage to as beautiful a looking and sounding world as you could step into in 2025, with no shortage of collectibles, side stories, and show-stopping duels to engage with. Sucker Punch’s latest is the Seattle studio’s most accomplished effort to date, and one of this year’s very best action-adventures.
Runner-Up - Donkey Kong Bananza
Donkey Kong Bananza encourages you to explore its many sandbox levels, not through careful investigation, but by smashing every corner of them into tiny pieces to see what secrets lurk inside. Nintendo’s modern 3D reinvention of what its beloved ape could be in 2025 quickly became the Switch 2’s must-have game, and for good reason. Bananza is a feast for treasure hunters, with hundreds of glowing bananas begging to be uncovered through destruction courtesy of DK’s pounding fists and many special abilities. Those skills are at the heart of it all, with the titular Bananzas powering inventive new ways to adventure through each of its themed levels. From the rampaging Kong Bananza that allows you to unleash a monstrous fury capable of breaking the toughest of terrain, as well as any enemy’s soon-to-be dust skeleton, to the wing-flapping Ostrich Bananza that allows for new heights to be soared to. It’s far from conventional, even by Nintendo 3D platforming standards, but Donkey Kong Bananza is one of this year’s very best when it comes to action-adventure.
Runner-Up - Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
Speaking of unconventional, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach certainly isn’t worried about obeying genre norms. An action-adventure that’s never afraid to show, tell, or have you engage with things you’ve never quite seen before, Kojima Productions’ latest is the fulfillment of a promise made in its predecessor. That’s not to say that there isn’t the familiar to be found here, with its increased focus on combat echoing memories of its creator’s Metal Gear Solid roots, thanks to an expanded range of options when it comes to approaching its stealth-action. It’s in its adventure, and the exploration of themes of grief and human connection at its centre, that make each of Sam Porter Bridges’ challenging steps through a post-apocalyptic Australia in Death Stranding 2 really sing, though, and one of this year’s very best action-adventures.
Winner - Hollow Knight: Silksong
Not only is it a huge relief that Hollow Knight: Silksong finally came out in 2025, but an even bigger one that it turned out to be so great. Placing an even greater emphasis on the action part of “action-adventure” than its predecessor, Team Cherry delivered a challenging, yet incredibly rewarding sequel via the tip of protagonist Hornet’s needle. That rapier-like blade will get plenty of use, too, with sprawling caverns laden with all manner of darting foes and patience-testing bosses possessing all manner of attack patterns, which once learned unlock the path to ultimate satisfaction.
Boss battles are only half of the, well, battle, when it comes to Silksong, though, with exploration still providing the meat of this Metroidvania/Soulslike soup. Breakable walls hide valuable materials behind them, and side quests encourage careful investigation into each of its many biomes, whether on the hunt for precious bounties or searching for missing fleas that need to be reunited with their traveling caravan companions. It’s this balance of both action and adventure that has turned the Hollow Knight series into such a phenomenon, and, in turn, Silksong into the winner of our award for best action-adventure game of 2025.
Is Silksong your pick for the best action-adventure game of the year, or would you have chosen differently? Vote for your favourite in the poll above, or let us know in the comments below.
Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.
Superheroes, ronin, insect warriors, and postal service workers. Whatever your fantasy this year, PlayStation could deliver it. But which PS5 game was the best? We at IGN have voted and picked out what we think are the five most worthy of recognition from across 2025, naming one of them the very best PlayStation game of the year, as well as shouting out a few honourable mentions that were very close to making the cut.
In an era where console exclusives are a dying breed, as Sony’s competitor, Microsoft, has shown us more than ever over the past few months, we’ve made the decision this year to branch out and open up the criteria for what can win our platform-specific awards. These aren’t the top five Sony exclusives, but the top five games that were released on PS5 in 2025, full stop. So, without further ado, let’s get on with it and crown the best PlayStation game of 2025 before we all die of old age.
Honorable Mentions
One of the best games from early in the year was Hazelight’s Split Fiction, the endlessly inventive co-op action platformer that just narrowly missed out on a top-five spot. Also just missing out are a pair of 2025’s breakout indie hits, Blue Prince and Ball X Pit. These two couldn’t be more different from each other, though, with the former brain-bending mansion full of puzzles a much calmer affair than the brick-breaking chaos of the latter. And then there’s two big shooters that came along at the end of the year. Battlefield 6’s multiplayer has seen it return to the glorious, huge-scale carnage that fans wanted, and Arc Raiders has proven a massive success thanks to its “just one more extraction” nature. Rounding out on honourable mentions are a pair of games that like to do things a bit differently when it comes to narrative: Atomfall and Silent Hill f. Both create uneasy worlds in their own ways, and we admire them for their freeform and steadily revealing approaches to storytelling, respectively.
Runner-Up - Hollow Knight: Silksong
It finally happened. 2025 was the year that Hollow Knight: Silksong saw the light of day, and what a relief that we not only got to play it, but it was also extremely good. Team Cherry’s much-anticipated sequel may be a whole lot more punishing than the original, but it is still home to that same magic, which can be found all over its sprawling, bug-sized world full of secret nooks and crannies. The platforming pathways to get to those places are tight and challenging, with new lead, Hornet, showing off a fresh batch of skills stemming from her fundamentally game-changing diagonal dart. But it’s in combat where she really comes into her own, promoting a more aggressive style of play which lets you take the fight to Silksong’s bestiary of bosses. These tough creatures of all shapes and sizes with nasty tricks up their sleeves may have presented some of 2025’s biggest roadblocks, but persevere, and the glory waiting behind them leads to one of this year’s greatest games.
Runner-Up - Dispatch
Superhero drama Dispatch manages to recapture the magic of those Telltale-esque episodic visual novels that we all fell in love with a decade or so ago. Following the story of Robert Robertson, a hero who is nothing without his now-destroyed mech suit, it's a heartwarming tale of redemption that isn’t without its fair share of bite, too. Managing your many relationships, both personal and professional, as they intertangle at Robbie’s place of work, the Superhero Dispatch Network, is key, as is making sure your team of down-and-out supervillains successfully try their hand at crime-stopping.
This half of the game adds a real-time sim management wrinkle to each chapter, as you boost the skills of your squad and send them out on missions that match their skillset. From the hot-head Flambae, to the internet’s new favourite demon Mommy, Malevola, you’re in command of a vibrant and varied bunch that each offer a fun dynamic to each and every scene they’re in. But it's outside of the SDN office monitor that Dispatch really comes to life, as Robertson’s life crumbles around him, and your best attempts at rebuilding it are hidden behind dialogue choices. What comes of its cast of characters, headlined by Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul as Robbie, and with Laura Bailey’s Invisagal stealing most scenes, is up to you. One thing that is guaranteed, though, is a great time.
Runner-Up - Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
In many ways, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach finally fulfilled the promise of its flawed predecessor. Creator Hideo Kojima’s second slice of post-apocalypse delivery adventures dialled up the action, echoing his past Metal Gear Solid successes, whilst still maintaining that singular, lonely vision of a disconnected world. Taking Sam Porter Bridges to Australia, On the Beach hands you a much expanded range of combat options, from silenced sniper rifles to homing missile mechanical dogs, and permits you to go about completing its many, many postal orders however you’d like. This freedom is not just a combat feature, but is reflected in how you go about navigating each of these treacherous delivery routes, too, with new ways to travel over stormy deserts and raging rivers, including huge, looming monorail systems and bonkers coffin hoverboards.
But the weirdness is just one aspect of Death Stranding — and there’s no shortage of it this time around, thanks to Troy Baker’s excellent return as villain Higgs — as its themes of love and loss ultimately dominate, no matter how large the spectacle on screen. Lea Seydoux is subtly brilliant as Fragile, and drives the story from start to finish as the connections between herself, Sam, and baby Lou are steadily revealed. It’s a fantastic example of a vision come to life, and easily one of the best PlayStation games to have come out in 2025.
Runner-Up - Ghost of Yotei
Following up on 2020’s Ghost of Tsushima was always going to be a challenge, but developer Sucker Punch rose to it impressively well with Ghost of Yotei. This sword-slashing epic borrows everything that we loved from its predecessor, but improves on almost all of it in a multitude of fun little ways. The pulsating combat opens up further, with new weapons and skills introduced to deepen its familiar dodge, block, parry, and swing system. Among those additions is the highly satisfying disarming mechanic that has your protagonist, Atsu, send her enemies' blades flying from their grasp. But it's this wandering ronin’s story that drives Yotei’s momentum, turning a simple tale of revenge into something much more beautiful as you explore each corner of its historical Japanese map and soak in both the audio and visual majesty on show
Winner - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Surprise! Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has won another award. It really is that good, though, isn’t it? Sandfall Interactive’s ode to Final Fantasy of years gone by takes that age-old formula and thrusts it firmly into 2025 with lashings of style, soaring music, and a battle system that melds classic turn-based RPG mechanics with exciting real-time elements, making each and every encounter a thrill. All of that style would be nothing without substance, though, and while its combat excites from moment to moment, it’s Clair Obscur’s poignant story and layered cast of characters that make it live long in the memory. Jennifer English is pitch-perfect as Maelle at the heart of Expedition 33’s plot, with Ben Starr’s Verso a wonderful foil as its twisted themes of grief and what it is to love are untangled. All played out in front of a ticking backdrop of the Gommage — a yearly tolling doomsday clock for anyone of a certain age — it’s wonderfully cinematic, making it fit right in alongside many of Sony’s first-party blockbuster offerings.
Taking inspiration from the original PlayStation’s library of Japanese RPGs and bringing those ideas into the future, thanks to an all-timer video game story supported by a combat system as satisfying as it is nuanced, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is the clear winner of our award for Best PlayStation Game of 2025.
What was your favourite PS5 game of 2025? Let us know in the comments! For more IGN awards, you can check them all out in one place here, including our picks for the best Xbox and Nintendo games of the year.
Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.
While there were many titles to choose from (just look at all the honorable mentions!), these are IGN staff’s picks for the year’s very best in our combined Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Movie category.
The Predator franchise returned in a big way this year thanks to director Dan Trachtenberg, whose two Predator movies both made our top five. We count Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein as sci-fi because, well, Mary Shelley’s book is one of the very first sci-fi novels ever published.
While Predator movies and del Toro’s Netflix epic may have had greater visibility, we didn’t want to overlook quirkier fare like Companion or Mickey 17 when selecting our nominees for the year’s best offerings in the sci-fi and fantasy genres.
Honorable Mentions go to Superman, Bugonia, 28 Years Later, How to Train Your Dragon, KPop Demon Hunters, Elio, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, The Legend of Ochi, Arco, OBEX, and Thunderbolts*. (Editor’s note: Avatar: Fire and Ash did not screen for enough staff in time for IGN awards consideration.)
Read on to find out which film is IGN’s best sci-fi or fantasy movie of 2025.
Runner-Up: Predator: Badlands
Prey director Dan Trachtenberg returned to the Predator franchise twice this year, first with the animated anthology film Predator: Killer of Killers (more on that below) and again with Predator: Badlands, the first entry in the nearly 40-year-old franchise to make the titular alien its main protagonist instead of the villain.
The simplistic yet surprisingly emotional Predator: Badlands followed a similar rites of passage story as Prey did, this time following a young Yautja named Dek (played by Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) who seeks to prove himself on a planet where even the trees are deadly.
Badlands is a fun, action-packed romp that also further developed the culture of the Yautja and even offered a healthy dose of humor thanks to teaming a Predator with an Alien franchise synthetic named Thea (Elle Fanning).
Runner-Up: Companion
Drew Hancock’s directorial debut is a sci-fi thriller that offers a mix of humor and bursts of violence to tell the story of a woman who discovers she’s a robot companion caught up in a larger scheme.
Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quaid are both great as Iris and her owner/boyfriend Josh, with both actors nicely subverting any audience expectations based on their personas from past projects such as Yellowjackets or The Boys, respectively.
This clever and occasionally vicious film ratches up the anticipation as Iris endures one stunning revelation after another.
Runner-Up: Predator: Killer of Killers
Directed by Prey and Predator: Badlands filmmaker Dan Trachtenberg, this Hulu release is the first entry in the franchise to be animated, but that doesn’t mean it pulled back on the graphic bloodshed the series is known for. It’s also the franchise’s first anthology film, telling four different stories of Yautja hunting humans (specifically Vikings, samurai, World War II fighter pilots, and then one other tale which we won’t spoil here).
“Its journey through several time periods is the perfect way to give us multiple Predator stories that each have their own distinct flavor and action highlights,” Eric Goldman said in his Predator: Killer of Killers review for IGN, praising Trachtenberg for “understanding how to provide both Predators and human characters who can kick ass and creatively prove their mettle, no matter which side of the hunt they begin on.”
Runner-Up: Mickey 17
Bong Joon Ho followed up his IGN Best Movie of 2019 winner Parasite (oh, yeah, and Oscar winner, too) with what our critic Siddhant Adlakha called “a jet-black, mean-as-hell sci-fi comedy about a near future in which life itself has been corporatized and reduced in value by a foppish upper class that hides its totalitarian aims behind supposed religious values.”
Robert Pattinson plays multiple incarnations of an “Expendable” worker who is repeatedly killed and re-cloned in order to perform dangerous jobs for an all-powerful corporation. Mickeys 17 and 18 are a pair of oddball sad sacks, and yet they still improbably become the resistance to Mark Ruffalo’s Trump-coded leader in this nihilistic, politically charged film that can often be, to paraphrase Adlakha’s Mickey 17 review, as depressing as it is farcical.
Winner: Frankenstein
Guillermo del Toro finally realized one of his lifelong dream projects with this sumptuously crafted adaptation of Mary Shelley’s pioneering sci-fi novel. As epic as his film is across the board, del Toro’s Frankenstein is, at its core, an intimate, thoughtful story about generational trauma and forgiveness.
While Oscar Isaac and Mia Goth both shine in their leading roles, it’s Jacob Elordi’s career-redefining performance as the Creature that stands out the most, giving the film a heart, soul and an elegance missing from so many past Frankenstein films. “This iteration of Frankenstein is, like its Creature, a beautiful, haunting thing through which classic themes are made to feel fresh and new,” IGN’s Scott Collura observed in his Frankenstein review.
With Frankenstein, Guillermo del Toro has made a movie that stands (reanimated) head and (mismatched) shoulders above the rest in this year’s Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Movie category.
James Cameron has said Arnold Schwarzenegger’s time as the iconic Terminator is officially over. He instead wants a new generation of characters for the next film in the franchise.
Terminator has for some time now been languishing in the doldrums, despite similar 80s and 90s sci-fi franchises such as Alien and Predator enjoying a resurgence. The last movie Cameron directed in the franchise was Terminator 2: Judgment Day. He had no involvement with the three sequels that followed but returned as a producer on Terminator: Dark Fate — a movie he said he was "reasonably happy" with, though he suggested it might have worked better without the original stars.
In 2022, Cameron said another Terminator reboot was "in discussion," but nothing was set in stone, and we’ve heard nothing since. He said at the time: "If I were to do another Terminator film and maybe try to launch that franchise again, which is in discussion, but nothing has been decided, I would make it much more about the AI side of it than bad robots gone crazy."
Now, on the eve of Avatar: Fire and Ash’s launch in theaters, Cameron has issued his strongest comment yet that a new Terminator film will finally get off the ground. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Cameron said that after Avatar settles down in a few months, he’s going to turn his attention to Terminator.
“Once the dust clears on Avatar in a couple of months, I’m going to really plunge into that,” he said. “There are a lot of narrative problems to solve. The biggest is how do I stay enough ahead of what’s really happening to make it science fiction?”
THR suggested Cameron has indeed solved this narrative problem, although he did not say how. What he did say, however, is that Arnold Schwarzenegger will not be in this new Terminator movie.
“I can safely say he won’t be [in it],” Cameron confirmed. “It’s time for a new generation of characters. I insisted Arnold had to be involved in Terminator: Dark Fate, and it was a great finish to him playing the T-800. There needs to be a broader interpretation of Terminator and the idea of a time war and super intelligence. I want to do new stuff that people aren’t imagining.”
That's that, then, for Arnie as the Terminator, even in CGI or AI-powered de-aged form. The 72-year-old Cameron is keeping his cards close to his chest, but it does indeed sound like he wants Terminator to leave the past behind and deliver something truly new. He also insisted he won’t do fan-friendly callbacks, as TV show Alien: Earth has done. “I’m not criticizing it, but I was there for Aliens, what, 41 years ago?” he said. “Something like that wouldn’t be of interest to me.”
“The things that scare you the most are exactly the things you should be doing,” Cameron added. “Nobody should be operating artistically from a comfort zone.”
“I’ve been in Avatar land for 20 years,” he said. “Actually 30 years because I wrote it in ‘95, but I wasn’t working continuously on it for those first 10 years. Yeah, absolutely, sure. If this is where it ends, cool.”
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.
With Blumhouse’s next Five Nights at Freddy's film now in theaters, there’s no better time to play through the Five Nights at Freddy’s games. Created by Scott Cawthon, the first Five Nights at Freddy's game launched back in 2014 and has since garnered an incredible fan base. The horror hit has been followed with a wide variety of sequels; from mainline games to plenty of spinoffs.
For those interested in taking on the night shift against these killer animatronics, we’ve detailed how to play each of the mainline FNAF games in both chronological and release date order below.
There are 12 main FNAF games in total, which we’ve covered below. As far as spin-offs and more challenge-based games go, though, there are 4 additional FNAF games that fall in this category. These are Five Nights at Freddy’s World, Freddy in Space 2, Security Breach: Fury’s Rage, and Ultimate Custom Night.
Which Five Nights at Freddy's Game Should You Play First?
We recommend starting with Five Nights at Freddy's, the series' first entry from 2014. It's the ideal way to familiarize yourself with the series' mechanics, as newer entries build on that original formula. It's also a safe way to begin from a narrative perspective given how convoluted the chronology has become over the last decade.
Five Nights at Freddy’s Games in Chronological Order
For those looking to play through the Five Nights at Freddy’s games in chronological order to get the full story, we’ve done our best to arrange them in story order. If you have different theories about this franchise’s order, though, share them in the comments!
1. Five Nights at Freddy's: Secret of the Mimic (2025)
Available on: PC, PS5
The newest FNAF game happens to be the earliest-set game in the series so far. Secret of the Mimic, from what we can gather from various hints in-game, takes place in 1979, several years before the official opening of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. The Mimic was originally introduced in the Ruin DLC for Security Breach, and plenty of theories have been thrown out there about who (or what) The Mimic really is.
Secret of the Mimic dives into these questions. The player takes on the role of a Fazbear technician named Arnold who's tasked with retrieving the Edwin Murray's inventions from a particularly unsettling Costume Manor. When power goes out at the manor, Arnold begins to notice signs he may not be alone. Secret of the Mimic uses first-person view, leaning into the survival horror genre with subtle hints about the killer animatronics (and their creators) we encounter later in the series.
2. Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 (2015)
Available on: Android/IOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 takes place in 1983. This is assumed because of an easter egg during one of the post-Night minigames that can be seen by interacting with a TV in the living room. After hitting it enough times, it’ll eventually bring up a still for a commercial for a show called Fredbear and Friends, which appears to have aired in 1983, given that’s the date beneath the title.
Compared to its predecessors, though, FNAF 4 has a different setting. This time, you play as a young child in their bedroom rather than as a security guard in an office. Throughout the night, you’ll need to run from your bedroom doors to your closet (and even check behind you on your bed) for a variety of terrifying enemies, but mainly nightmare variations of the original animatronics: Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy. Listen out for them and keep your flashlight close to scare them away.
3. Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 (2014)
Available on: Android/IOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is next in a chronological playthrough and brings players to the newly-opened Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza to work the night shifts as a security guard. FNAF 2 also introduces new animatronics in the mix alongside updated versions of its classics. These new additions are The Puppet and Balloon Boy, so you’ll have more to watch out for on the cameras.
This time around, you’re also given a Freddy Fazbear head to wear in case the animatronics happen to reach your office. With it on, most of the animatronics will have a harder time recognizing you and leave, which’ll buy you some more time before the crack of dawn. You also have a music box that you need to keep wound up to keep The Puppet away. This animatronic won’t be fooled by your sneaky little fake Freddy head, so make sure to keep the music box going.
We’ve placed this game as second in line for a chronological playthrough, as it’s set in 1987. This can be assumed from the paycheck you receive at the end of Night 5, which is dated for that year.
4. Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location (2016)
Available on: Android/IOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
In a departure from the previous game, and as its title may point to, Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location takes place at a different spot called Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental, which features its own animatronics as well. This time around, you play as a technician working night shifts with a series of tasks to complete alongside surviving the animatronics.
Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location is actually a bit trickier to place on the timeline, and many fans still debate when it could be set. The reason we’ve chosen this slot is because of a line HandUnit says at the beginning of the game: “Due to the massive success, and even more so, the unfortunate closing of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, it was clear that the stage was set, no pun intended, for another contender in children’s entertainment.” This line could be referencing when Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza closed down in ‘87 following FNAF 2, which is also brought up by Phone Guy in FNAF 1 during Night 1. So, for now, having Sister Location between the two seems like a good fit. Let us know your theories in the comments below, though!
5. Five Nights at Freddy’s (2014)
Available on: Android/IOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
The one that started it all. Five Nights at Freddy’s was the first game that had players taking on the security guard mantle to keep watch of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza for five night shifts. Mainly, you need to keep an eye on the animatronics there: Chica, Bonnie, Foxy, and of course, Freddy Fazbear. Their behavior has become a bit unpredictable lately, and they like to roam around freely at night… just make sure they don’t roam into your office.
Alongside the cameras that need to be checked, players can also close the security doors near them if the animatronics get too close during the night. Keep in mind, though, you only have limited amounts of power to use. Once it’s gone, goodbye doors and lights!
Five Nights at Freddy’s takes place a few years later than the previously mentioned games, likely sometime in the early ‘90s. This can be assumed from Phone Guy’s dialogue during Night 1 where he says that the animatronics used to be able to walk around during the day, “but then there was the bite of ‘87.” This helps place it after FNAF 2 and before FNAF3, which we’ll get to next.
6. Five Nights at Freddy’s: Into the Pit (2024)
Available on: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC
Into the Pit, the latest game in the series, is a point-and-click adventure based on the Five Nights at Freddy's book of the same name. The story is split between two time periods: modern day and 1985.
It's uncertain where Into the Pit's modern storyline fits into the series' chronology, or if it exists within the ongoing narrative at all, though assuming it does, we're confident it takes place around the time of Five Nights at Freddy's 3. We've placed it ahead of FNaF3 given several items found in Jeff's Pizza, the setting of Into the Pit, can be found at FNaF3's Fazbear's Fright, which was said to be decorated with remains from the original restaurant, which later became Jeff's Pizza.
7. Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 (2015)
Available on: Android/IOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
According to Five Nights at Freddy’s 3’s Steam description, this game is set “Thirty years after Freddy Fazbear's Pizza closed its doors,” which would put it after the events of FNAF 1, given that’s when Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza closed for good, and, if we’re going with the early ‘90s, would set it sometime around the 2020s. It brings players into a brand new location as well… Fazbear’s Fright: The Horror Attraction. Yes, this new attraction is based on the terrifying events that happened in Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, and they even have old animatronics from it to really keep you on your toes!
Once again, you step into the shoes of a security guard keeping watch of the attraction and its “great new relics” that have been picked up. Like before, you’ll have security cameras to monitor, but this time you also have a maintenance panel to reboot systems that go offline and close off vents to prevent those creepy animatronics from crawling toward your office space.
8. Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria Simulator (2017)
Available on: Android/IOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
If you’re feeling tired of working security or maintenance, why not make the jump into running your own pizza place? In Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria Simulator, you get to do just that. But don’t worry, this game isn’t without its frights. You’ll still need to keep the animatronics away from you when in your office, and there’s plenty to monitor when you’re in there as well.
Not only do you have a computer near you to keep tabs on everything and complete your tasks, but you’ll need to watch the vents on both sides of you for anything that could be crawling through. However, both your computer and the vents make quite a bit of noise, so you’ll have to take turns shutting them off to hear your surroundings.
Throughout the game, you’ll salvage animatronics as well. One of these is Springtrap, whose first appearance in the series was in FNAF 3, which places this game sometime after it in a chronological playthrough.
9. Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted (2019)
Available on: Android/IOS, Nintendo Switch, Oculus Quest, PSVR, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted was the franchise’s first step into VR - and later came out on PC and consoles. Developed by Steel Wool Studios in collaboration with Scott Cawthon, in Help Wanted you can play through a variety of mini-games that feature familiar animatronics and experiences from earlier games in the series.
But where does this game fit into the timeline? During the opening ‘Welcome’ message for the game, HandUnit states that “Fazbear Entertainment has developed something of a bad reputation over the last few decades, [...] That's why we have recreated many of these completely fictitious scenarios (lies) that you've been fed over the last several years into a hilarious VR game.” And given that Help Wanted recreates situations from previous games in the timeline up to FNAF 3 on our list, it makes sense to place it after that game and near Pizzeria Simulator.
10. Five Nights at Freddy’s: Special Delivery (2019)
Available on: IOS/Android
Five Nights at Freddy’s: Special Delivery is an Augmented Reality game that was released on mobile devices just a few months after Help Wanted. Much like how Help Wanted immersed you into FNAF in VR, Special Delivery did the same by bringing the animatronics home to you. In this game, you have to keep an eye out for them on your mobile device as they stalk around the room, utilizing a flashlight and controlled shock to stop them.
Similar to Help Wanted, Special Delivery involves its own branch of Fazbear Entertainment. Here, the Fazbear Funtime Service is what’s sending the animatronics to your house and, when it comes to the franchise’s timeline, it would make sense that they’d create something like this around the time of The Freddy Fazbear Virtual Experience in Help Wanted. Given how HandUnit explains at the start of Help Wanted that, “Fazbear Entertainment is excited to join the digital age, and what better way to do that than with an edge-of-your-seat virtual reality experience,” it sounds like that was their first endeavor, and this would be their second outing into it.
11. Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach (2021)
Available on: Google Stadia, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch
Security Breach is the second game in the franchise to be developed between both Scott and Steel Wool Studios, following Help Wanted. It’s a free-roam survival horror where you play as a young boy named Gregory who gets trapped at night in Freddy Fazbear’s Mega Pizzaplex. Throughout the night, he’ll need to survive the various animatronics, but with a surprising helpful hand along the way.
In a chronological playthrough, this game comes in last. This can largely be taken away from the fact that Freddy Fazbear’s has now grown into a Mega Pizzaplex, but there’s also a moment in one of the endings that helps confirm that it’s set after one of the previously mentioned games. However, so as to avoid spoilers, we’ll let you uncover that ending on your own!
Available on: PlayStation 5, PC, PSVR2, Steam VR, Meta Quest
Once again developed by Steel Wool Studios in collaboration with Scott Cawthon, Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted 2 is pretty similar to its predecessor, featuring a wide variety of minigames for you to dig into. But where does this game land on the Five Nights at Freddy’s timeline?
Help Wanted 2 takes place between Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach and its DLC, RUIN. That makes it the last full game in the lore’s current timeline, but not quite the very final event. This slightly complicated placement is due to one of Help Wanted 2’s endings, in which your character becomes the Maskbot that gives the V.A.N.N.I mask to Cassie, the protagonist from the RUIN DLC. This interaction with her happens towards the start of RUIN, meaning the events of Help Wanted 2 start sometime before that DLC.
In keeping with its older sibling, Help Wanted 2 is also a VR game! It’s available on PSVR 2, Steam VR, and Meta Quest. And for those who don’t want to be fully immersed as a Fazbear employee, a flat version of the game was also released on June 20 for PlayStation 5 and PC.
Five Nights at Freddy’s Games in Release Order
If you’re interested in playing through the main Five Nights at Freddy’s games in their release order, you can find them listed as such below:
There's no official word on new Five Night's at Freddy's games in development, though we're sure they exist. In the meantime, a sequel to the Five Nights at Freddy's movie starring Josh Hutcherson just hit theaters. If you're not afraid of spoilers, feel free to check out Matt Donato's review of the movie for IGN.
Hannah Hoolihan is a freelance writer who works with the Guides and Commerce teams here at IGN.
The holiday period is a great time to catch up on some of this year’s games that may have passed you by. If Ninja Gaiden 4 was on your list of games to play, Best Buy is offering a $15 discount on both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X versions right now as part of its Deal of the Day (see it here).
This offer brings its price down from $69.99 to $54.99, which is a nice little early holiday treat to jump on. Again, since it’s part of Best Buy's Deal of the Day selection, the timer on its sale page has already started counting down until the end of today. Now is the time to take advantage of this limited-time deal and add it to your library for a little less.
Save $15 on Ninja Gaiden 4 (PlayStation 5/Xbox Series X)
Ninja Gaiden 4 was one of our favorite action games of 2025, earning a runner-up spot in our IGN Awards. Our 8/10 review from IGN’s Mitchell Saltzman said, “When it comes to combat, there are few games I’d consider to even be in the same ballpark as Ninja Gaiden 4. It is quite simply the most fun I’ve had with a 3D action game since Devil May Cry 5.” With praise like that, why not add it to your list of must-play games over the holidays?
If you're grabbing this game as a gift for a Ninja Gaiden fan this year and are on the hunt for more gaming-related items to pick up before the holidays, we can help there, too. Our roundup of the 10 best gifts for gamers features even more recommendations we think are worth gifting this year, from hardware to apparel to the very cool LEGO Game Boy build. If something catches your eye, now is the time to buy to make sure you have it in time.
Hannah Hoolihan is a freelancer who writes with the guides and commerce teams here at IGN.
If Star Trek Discovery ever made you curious about "The Burn," that 31st Century disaster that crippled the Federation, then the comic series Star Trek: The Last Starship is for you. This series follows the last starship crew left standing after every warp core in the galaxy explodes. And most intriguingly of all, they count the resurrected Captain James T. Kirk as a crew member.
We've seen how exactly Kirk is resurrected centuries after his death, but many questions still remain. Those questions will have to wait, though, as Captain Sato and the crew of the USS Omega are dealing with a major Klingon attack. Star Trek: The Last Starship #3 not only chronicles a bloody battle between the Omega and the Klingon fleet, but it ends with arguably the greatest tragedy in the history of the Federation. Earth has declared independence, abandoning the high-minded ideals it represented for so long.
To break down that shocking twist and the other big developments in The Last Starship #3, IGN spoke with writers Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing. Read on to learn more and to see an exclusive preview of Star Trek: The Last Starship #4.
IGN: Issues #2 and #3 really highlight the contrast between Kirk and Captain Sato and how the latter is having to confront the necessity of war for the first time in his career. Do you see that as one of the core struggles of the series, where members of the Federation are having to face a new reality after an era of such unprecedented peace?
Collin Kelly: Absolutely. Captain Sato is a child of that peace; Starfleet’s best captain, the Picard of the age. There’s a reason this story began in his shining moment just as it burns. When a fully functioning system falls apart, the ensuing vacuum can give rise to anything …and sadly, just like in our own time, the first thing to rise is violence.
Jackson Lanzing: The dialectic between Sato’s experience and Kirk’s is the center of the entire series - and I think readers can really start to see how that will grow after the events of issue #3. Sato tried to solve the Klingon situation peacefully, but that left him with dead comrades and a hopeless stand. He sees Kirk’s methods as brutal, as ancient - it’s like if the Joint Chiefs gave the nuclear codes to Genghis Khan. But it works - at least, it keeps the Omega alive. But in the process, Sato not only loses something crucial - his innocence - but Kirk witnesses the true wages of that violence: a burning Earth, ready to turn its back on everything it stood for. This is an opening debate about methods and means. It won’t be the last. And it’ll only get more devastating from here.
IGN: We see from Kirk’s monologue in issue #2 that he has all his memories, up to and including his death in Star Trek: Generations. How much is he fueled by his lingering hatred and distrust of the Klingons? How much does he struggle with the question of whether he’s a facsimile of James T. Kirk or the real deal?
Lanzing: It’s his defining struggle. Is this man truly James Kirk? Is he a facsimile? Is he a man given new life or a ghost brought back to haunt his own burning legacy? And are those memories worth anything anymore? In issue #2 and 3, we see the value of his experience as a captain and a warrior against the Klingons - but it involves letting himself fall back into patterns of hatred that he thought he’d overcome. Will that shape a new man from this new Kirk? Or will he find his way back to the legend in this darkest of times?
Kelly: Then of course there’s the biggest question on his mind: why did the Borg bring him back in the first place? Is he a trap for his fellow crewmates? Forget the Burn - is Kirk the sword that will destroy the Federation once and for all?
IGN: We see Sato defer to Kirk during the battle in issue #3. What is Kirk’s official role on the USS Omega meant to be? Is he going to be co-captain, or is this something he and Sato are still figuring out themselves?
Kelly: Kirk’s position as the Omega’s captain was only ever during that emergency - this is Sato’s ship. He might not have the battlefield experience of Kirk, but he has the core trait of every great captain: he’s willing to put down his ego, listen to his crew, trust his instincts, and then execute the best possible solution with the tools provided. In that, he and Kirk are incredibly similar…which will be something we highlight in Issue #4, when we give you the actual answer you’re looking for.
Lanzing: Yeah. “What is my job here?” is a question Kirk - and others on the ship - will begin to ask in the aftermath of that battle… and it’ll will sit at the center of the story of The Last Starship’s second chapter.
IGN: Kirk refers to the Omega as the Enterprise during the battle. Is the ship getting a name change going forward?
Lanzing: He wishes.
Kelly: Yeah, Starfleet registries don’t work like that.
Lanzing: But think of that as a bit of a hint at his mindframe. Some real clues to his future in the book are in that particular decision for eagle-eyed readers.
IGN: It looks like Sato is in command of a full Klingon fleet now. Is that the first step in rebuilding Starfleet’s broken navy?
Lanzing: Wouldn’t that be lovely? That’s how this story might’ve gone in a better time, in a less desperate one. But during the Burn, easy answers like that don’t belong.
Kelly: At the end of issue #3, Sato orders the black fleet “go into the darkness, back to their warrior halls and ancient battlefields,” effectively telling them to "go home". But for the Klingons of the Black Mind…there is no home. Countless Klingons died in the Burn, either blasted apart on starships or stranded on distant colonies, with none of them dying as warriors bound to Sto’vo’kor - so the survivors have no reason left to live. No reason but to punish their ancient rivals, the one organization that was meant to keep them safe…and in the process, effectively commit death-by-Starfleet. Instead, they were sent away in defeated shame. What Sato hears next is “so much screaming it fills subspace…and then they’re just gone”.
Lanzing: Note that we’ve never seen the Klingons post-Burn in any of the series. There’s a reason for that… and it’s those screams and silence that’ll give your first hint.
IGN: We see from the ending to #3 that Agnes seems to hold real love for Kirk above and beyond the reverence she showed in earlier chapters. Is it fun writing a Borg character who can feel these sorts of emotions? Is it safe to assume we’ll learn more about her past and why she’s so attached to Kirk?
Lanzing: Absolutely, on both counts. To me, Jurati is the key to making the Borg interesting - she’s tragic and desperate and dangerous and mysterious. And when her motivations are revealed later in the series, that big moment at the end of issue #3 will likely feel very different than it does right now.
IGN: The series takes a darker turn still in issue #3 when Earth is attacked and subsequently chooses to defect from the Federation. How deep a blow is this to those who remain? Is the question now whether the Federation can even survive without such a key member world?
Kelly: To Sato, the Omega, and almost every surviving officer of Starfleet, losing Earth from the Federation is like being disowned by a parent. Earth has not only geographically been the center of the Federation, it has made itself the cultural center of the Federation as well…and it’s now effectively said, “everyone who isn’t us needs to get out”. As two writers who were literally raised on the ideals of Starfleet, the concept that Earth would cut ties so quickly after the Burn was always a bit of a blow to the chest…but in the world outside our window, we’re seeing how fragile our beloved institutions truly are, when those in charge allow themselves to be ruled by reaction and fear.
Lanzing: Ultimately, that’s why we wrote The Last Starship: to create a devastating collision between the ideals of an eternal utopia and the inevitability of systemic collapse. We’re looking out our window - just like the original series - and telling a story about what we see. Issue #4 is the clearest example of that yet… and with that charter, I think every issue allows Last Starship to push past the boundaries of what’s expected from a Star Trek story and into the realm of the universal. There are a lot of people out there who see Trek as somehow so idealistic as to be removed from reality. This is our counterargument - a story about a world with no easy answers, where Star Trek must somehow persevere. Just like all of our ideals, through the darkest times.
Star Trek: The Last Starship #4 will be released on January 21, 2026. You can preorder a copy at your local comic shop.
Superhero workplace comedy game Dispatch has just popped up on the Nintendo eShop for Switch and Switch 2, and is already available to pre-order.
There's been no formal word yet by developer AdHoc Studio, but the Nintendo eShop listing is now live in Australia, where Switch owners can pre-order the game. There's even a release date, too: January 29, 2026.
For Nintendo Switch 2 owners, a free upgrade pack will be available to download separately, providing a version of the game with enhanced resolution and improved frame rates. As of yet, there's no sign of the game arriving on Xbox — though we'll update this article again when AdHoc makes any formal announcement.
Dispatch first launched back in October for PC and PlayStation 5, where it quickly won over a legion of fans for its quirky, episodic storytelling, and shifted 2 million copies over its first month on sale — something its team had projected the game would reach after two years.
The game features an ensemble cast of heroes voiced by some famous faces, including Aaron Paul, Laura Bailey, Jeffrey Wright, and Matthew Mercer, while its development team features key personel from Telltale Games' heyday, who previously worked on The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us and Tales from the Borderlands.
"Dispatch is a sharp-witted workplace comedy that charms with its smart dialogue choices, great writing, and lovably aggravating cast," IGN wrote in our Dispatch review, scoring the game with a super 9/10.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 launched last month to become the best-selling game of November in the U.S. by dollar sales. It's both a huge sales feat and a common Call of Duty W, as the franchise has topped the charts in its launch month every year for 18 straight years. However, it looks like its rival Battlefield 6 will reign at the top of the U.S. sales charts at year's end.
This comes from Circana's monthly report, which has Black Ops 7 debuting as the best-selling game of November and the seventh best-selling game of the year-to-date, behind Battlefield 6 at No.1, NBA 2K26 at No.2, Monster Hunter Wilds at No.3, Borderlands 4 at No.4, EA Sports College Football 26 at No.5, and Madden NFL 26 at No.6.
All of those games have a few more months on the market on Call of Duty, but it's still a lot of ground to make up in a single month, and Call of Duty's at a bit of a disadvantage. The game launched into Game Pass, meaning its actual dollar sales on Xbox consoles are much lower than that of its rivals as people use the subscription service to access it instead, and there's no good recent data on how Call of Duty's presence on the service impacts subscriptions.
It is worth noting, though, that Black Ops 7 doesn't seem to be doing as well as Black Ops 6, a fact that's reflected in everything from the critical review scores to fan response to European sales figures to Activision's own admissions. Circana reports that the Call of Duty franchise saw a double-digit dollar sales decline compared to November 2024, and Circana senior director Mat Piscatella tells me that November full game dollar sales of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 finished below those of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 last November, with Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 launching in the October 2024 tracking period.
It is Piscatella's projection that Battlefield 6 is "extremely likely" to finish as the best-selling game of 2025 in the U.S. This would not be the only time Call of Duty didn't top the annual charts in recent memory. In 2023, Hogwarts Legacy defeated Modern Warfare 3, and that was with Modern Warfare 3 not launching into Game Pass. However, Black Ops 6 still dominated in 2024, and prior to that only Rockstar's GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 had been able to dethrone Call of Duty going all the way back to 2008's Rockband.
It was a weird November for all, I guess. Game sales in general had a shockingly weak November in the U.S., as we covered in our larger roundup of Circana's numbers. You can see what's going on and why gaming hardware and physical software just had the worst November since 1995 right here.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
One of the standout characters of HBO's IT prequel series Welcome to Derry has without a doubt been Dick Hallorann, as portrayed by actor Chris Chalk (Gotham, Perry Mason). Of course, the interesting thing about Dick is that Stephen King fans know he'll eventually become the head chef at the Overlook Hotel, where he'll have a fateful run-in with the Torrance family in The Shining.
But since Welcome to Derry Season 1 is set in 1962, and far from the Overlook, this Dick Hallorann is just a young Air Force Airman who is still struggling with his ability to "shine." It's a traumatic, debilitating power that he has, which makes this version of Dick quite different from the jolly, benevolent version Scatman Crothers played in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film.
"I think what Dick wants is just love, just like everybody else," Chalk told me when I asked about how the character will eventually evolve into the version of him in The Shining. "And I think he wonders if he can have love if he can read everybody's mind, and who would accept him if they knew who he really was? ... And then when we see him alone in The Shining. It didn't work."
For Chalk, Dick's shining powers are "a big-time curse" because "he's perpetually wanting love and cannot get it, because if I can read your mind, I'm going to cheat. You know what I mean? I'm going to figure out who you really are."
That said, and Dick's being alone in The Shining notwithstanding, Chalk does see his character as taking the first steps to a better life in Welcome to Derry -- one where he can deal with his powers.
"To me, Welcome to Derry, the last episode is the beginning of the transformation," he says. "He's nowhere near that guy [in The Shining], but he's learning that, 'Oh, I can find connection. People will like me. I can be useful.' Whereas before that, it's a one-person show with it."
As for Dick's future... or rather, the future of his past, Chalk's not ruling out playing the character again. While the plan is for Welcome to Derry to span three seasons, it's currently unclear where it will all sit on the timeline. But Mike Flanagan, who wrote and directed The Shining movie sequel Doctor Sleep, and which featured Carl Lumbly as Dick, was at one time working on a potential prequel that would've focused on the character. Chalk is all in if somethign like that ever comes to be.
"Oh, man," laughs the actor. "I'm trying to initiate [a spin-off]! What are you talking about? Yeah. I would love it. ... There's so much storytelling left to be told about Dick Hallorann, and we know where we're going. Because imagine, one, he could go to New Orleans. That's a thing. He could just go straight to the Overlook and then, you know the picture with all the people [from the end of The Shining]? Where'd they go? And that could be the series. The death-of-the-week sort of thing. Who were the twins? Were they alive when he got there? You know what I mean?
"That's the beauty of Stephen King. He gave you all this stuff and says, 'Go play, now.' So let's make this show!"
November 2025 was a shockingly terrible month for video game sales in the U.S. While we traditionally think of November as a huge sales month what with Black Friday and all, November 2025 was the worst November in video game hardware unit sales, and the worst in physical software dollar sales the U.S. has seen since 1995.
That's according to Circana's monthly report, which paints a pretty dismal picture of last month's commercial performance. The industry in the U.S. saw declines across the board in hardware, accessories, and console spending for an overall drop of 4% year-over-year, at $5.9 billion in total spending.
Hardware
More specifically, hardware spending was down a whopping 27% year-over-year to $695 million, the lowest hardware spending total for November since 2005's $455 million. Even worse, unit sales reached 1.6 million, which is the lowest November total since 1995's 1.4 million.
And that's representative of declines across the board. Xbox Series hardware sales were down 70% year-over-year. PS5 sales were down over 40%, and combined unit sales of Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 were down over 10% from Switch sales last year, despite this being a launch year for the Nintendo Switch 2.
What's going on? As pointed out by Circana senior director Mat Piscatella, video game hardware has never been more expensive, reaching an all-time November high of $439 per unit, up 11% year-over-year. The Xbox specifically saw its average price per unit increase by over 30%, perhaps confirming one reason why folks aren't so keen to buy Xboxes specifically.
With the Nintendo Switch 2, Piscatella says he's watching its sales "very closely," and offers this analysis of its current situation:
With six months in the market, it remains the fastest-selling video game hardware in U.S. history. However, part of what was driving that was its availability to be bought during its launch window. It's been extremely rare to have such a successful new device not suffer supply constraints going into its first holiday sales period. Unit sales of Switch 2 were lower than those of Switch 1 during each console's first November, but the price points are also quite different. The average price paid for a new Nintendo Switch in November 2017 was $309 (which, if adjusted for inflation, is approximately $405 in November 2025 dollars), compared to the $486 for Switch 2 in November 2025. Perhaps it is a case of demand having been pulled forward earlier in the year because people could find them. Or perhaps the mass market is not as quickly adopting Switch 2 as it did Switch. Or perhaps consumers are looking elsewhere for holiday gifting as the prices continue to rise in video game hardware. Tough to say at the moment.
There's one piece of hardware that's doing okay, and it's not what you'd expect: the NEX Playground. It was the third best-selling piece of video game hardware of November by unit sales, surpassing the Xbox Series, while the more expensive Xbox Series beat it in dollar sales (the PS5 was first in both categories, the Switch 2 was second). Piscatella calls the NEX Playground a "remarkable story," noting that while everyone else is having a bad time, it just had a superb November by comparison:
November 2025 tracked unit sales at U.S. retailers for NEX Playground were just 7% below its entire tracked lifetime sales at retail through October. With an average selling price of just over $200 in November, strong placement at retail, and some successful influencer and viral marketing efforts, the NEX Playground became one of the hottest video game products of the holiday season during the month. We'll have to see how well the pace can keep up, as there are reports that the NEX Playground is now largely sold out, with secondary market prices on sites like eBay soaring accordingly.
There could be a lesson here that more affordable, family friendly gaming devices carry appeal during holiday gifting season.
Software
Things aren't looking much better on the content side. While Circana reports that content spending was up 1% year-over-year to $4.8 billion, that's with subscription spending rising 16% and 2% growth in mobile. Physical software sales, meanwhile, dropped 14% year-over-year to the worst November since 1995, the year Circana began tracking them.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 put the Call of Duty franchise back on top for another debut month in November as the month's best-seller, marking the 18th year in a row a Call of Duty has launched to the top of the charts. That said, Circana reports that the franchise saw a double-digit percentage full game dollar sales decline when compared to November 2024.
It's a little tricky to make precise comparisons between Black Ops 7 and its predecessor, Black Ops 6, given both games launched into Xbox Game Pass, and Black Ops 6 released in October last year, not November. Still, Piscatella tells me that Black Ops 7's full game dollar sales finished below those of Black Ops 6's last November. Additionally, Black Ops 7 is currently the seventh best-selling game of the year-to-date, and Piscatella anticipates that its rival, Battlefield 6, will end the year as the best-selling game of 2025. This isn't the first time in recent memory it's been beaten, with Hogwarts Legacy coming out on top in 2023. Notably, that year, Hogwarts Legacy beat Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, which did not launch into Game Pass, while Black Ops 7 this year did, almost certainly making its actual dollar sales total lower as a result.
It's worth noting as well that accessories spending was down 13% year-over-year.
Red Flags
This is shaping up to be a pretty weird year. I asked Piscatella what he makes of all this, and what it means for the games industry. He pointed out that much of the story remains to be told in December, and that it's possible consumers are waiting for better deals closer to the holidays. Alternatively, it's possible that economic factors and price of consoles are pushing people to hold off on gaming purchases. Here's what Piscatella had to say:
Retail spending had been holding up relatively well until now, despite the pressure from higher prices we've been seeing in the market. More affluent consumers have kept on spending so far, which has made up for some of the declines in spending from the less affluent portions of the market. Perhaps this is a sign that those higher prices are beginning to impact purchases of pricier items, like consoles. Perhaps not.
However, if the crunch on RAM pricing continues, if we see rising prices on consoles and gaming PCs over the coming months it could, theoretically, be potentially devastating to the dedicated gaming device market. Which would, of course, have potential carryover effects on the content side.
I certainly see some of the relationships between hardware unit sales and pricing we're seeing in the November results as a red flag.
We won't get the December and full-year results in until January, which will tell us a lot more about whether the games industry is about to enter a lean period, or if this November was just a goofy one-off.
November 2025 U.S. Top 20 Best-Selling Games:
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 (NEW)
Battlefield 6
NBA 2K26
Madden NFL 26
EA Sports FC 26
Pokemon Legends: Z-A*
Ghost of Yotei
EA Sports College Football 26
Minecraft*
Kirby Air Riders (NEW)*
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment (NEW)*
The Outer Worlds 2
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds
Donkey Kong Bananza*
Marvel's Spider-Man 2
Red Dead Redemption II
Grand Theft Auto V
Borderlands 4
Forza Horizon 5
Digimon Story: Time Stranger
* 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. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
Seán "Jacksepticeye" McLoughlin is executive producing a new horror movie called Godmother.
According to Collider, the independent thriller will star Paige Evans (Revival), Cameron Cuffe (Krypton), Riley Dandy (Christmas Bloody Christmas), 'scream queen' Dee Wallace (E.T.), and Bruce Davison (X-Men) and follows Theo (Evans) as she and her boyfriend Colby (Cuffe) head into the High Desert for a romantic weekend, only to have their plans "slowly encroached upon by a pair of unsettlingly friendly retirees (Wallace and Davison) with dark designs for her."
Wallace is best known for playing Mary Taylor in Steven Spielberg's E.T., but she has starred in a number of horror hits, including The Stepford Wives (1975), The Hills Have Eyes (1977), The Howling (1981), Cujo (1983), Critters (1986), The Frighteners (1996), Halloween (2007), The House of the Devil (2009), and The Lords of Salem (2012).
The story has been written by A Suit and a Straight Razor writer John Veron, and the script co-written by actor, voice actor, and former IGN host, Alanah Pearce, who also joins the production as creative producer.
Craig Sherwood is producing for Cinesthesia Factory alongside Nate Lipp and Eric Michael Kochmer. Production reportedly kicked off in New Mexico earlier this month.
McLoughlin — a writer and director himself — has previously appeared in handful of movies and Netflix's Sonic Prime animated series, and given his voice to numerous video games, including Bendy and the Ink Machine, Poppy Playtime, and mostly recently, Dispatch, which also stars Pearce.
Recently, however, he has been branching out into roles behind the camera and revealed earlier this year that he'd spent 12 months working on a Soma animated show only for it to fall apart, leaving him “quite upset."
isn't the first YouTuber to make a horror movie. Markiplier's Iron Lung, a sci-fi horror movie based on the 2022 submarine horror video game by David Szymanski of the same name, is due out in theaters next month. Markiplier, real name Mark Fischbach, directed, wrote, and starred in the video game adaptation.
Photo by Scott Kirkland/Frank Micelotta/The Game Awards via Getty Images.
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.
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