Two numbers in Circana's July 2026 report tell the industry where it stands. Per Circana's video game data as reported by IGN, US physical game dollar sales fell to $85 million — an all-time low for any July — while the tracking firm also confirmed that Microsoft has stopped providing digital sales data, removing Xbox, Activision and Bethesda titles from the completeness of the US chart.
The $85 million floor
Physical software's decline is a two-decade trend, but July 2026 marks its steepest milestone yet: the lowest July on record, per IGN's coverage of the report, with physical sales for PlayStation hardware also down significantly year to date. GamesIndustry.biz's supplementary figures showed tracked categories down 29% to $282 million — the weakest July since 2020. The direction is familiar; the record low gives it a date and a dollar figure that will be cited for years.
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Microsoft's data exit changes the chart
The quieter earthquake is methodological. Per Circana, Microsoft stopped providing digital game sales data effective with the July 2026 report, covering games published under Xbox, Activision and Bethesda. In practice, a Call of Duty or Elder Scrolls title can now top the real US market without appearing at its true rank on Circana's chart — the first time in the modern tracking era that a first-party publisher of that size is dark. Analysts' cross-month comparisons lose a data leg, and the headline rankings carry a permanent asterisk.
The year's best-sellers, asterisked
What the data still shows: year-to-date 2026's top sellers are Resident Evil: Requiem at number one and Crimson Desert at number two, per Circana's running chart — with every Microsoft-published title's true position now unmeasurable. The irony is sharp: 2026's software story includes the Steam Machine's launch and Switch 2's momentum, yet the measurement layer for the market itself is narrowing as the platforms multiply.
What to watch next
August's report will show whether the $85 million July floor was seasonal or structural — August typically outperforms, so a new all-time low there would signal acceleration. And watch whether Sony or Nintendo follow Microsoft's data withdrawal; if either does, Circana's US charts become a partial census rather than a market measure, and the industry loses its common scoreboard.