NBA 2K27 is the best-selling game in the United States in 2026 so far, according to Circana’s official year-to-date chart through September 30. Resident Evil: Requiem is second on that chart, and Capcom’s own financial report puts it at 8.51 million units sold worldwide as of the same date.
There is no complete worldwide top-10 for 2026 yet. Publishers report their own milestones, and Circana ranks US spending without publishing unit totals. The honest answer needs both lists kept apart.
| Question | Answer | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Best-selling game of 2026 so far | NBA 2K27 | US retail and digital spending, January to September |
| Biggest publisher-reported unit total | Resident Evil: Requiem, 8.51 million units | Worldwide, as of September 30 |
| Fastest verified launch milestone | Slay the Spire 2, 3 million units in one week | Worldwide, developer report |
What is the best-selling game of 2026 so far?
NBA 2K27 leads Circana’s US year-to-date chart through September. Resident Evil: Requiem is second, 007 First Light third, MLB: The Show 26 fourth and Crimson Desert fifth. Call of Duty: Black Ops II, a 2012 shooter that returned on current PlayStation hardware, sits sixth, as Quartz’s breakdown of the Circana chart explains.
| Rank | Title | Publisher | How Circana measured it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NBA 2K27 | Take-Two Interactive | Digital point-of-sale actuals |
| 2 | Resident Evil: Requiem | Capcom USA | Digital point-of-sale actuals |
| 3 | 007 First Light | IO Interactive | Digital sales projections |
| 4 | MLB: The Show 26 | Multiple publishers | Actuals and projections |
| 5 | Crimson Desert | Pearl Abyss | Digital sales projections |
| 6 | Call of Duty: Black Ops II | Microsoft | Digital sales projections |
| 7 | Forza Horizon 6 | Microsoft | Digital sales projections |
| 8 | Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream | Nintendo | Digital sales projections |
| 9 | LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight | Warner Bros. Games | Digital point-of-sale actuals |
| 10 | Pokémon: Pokopia | Nintendo | Digital sales projections |
The chart is Circana’s US retail and digital spending ranking, published on October 28, 2026. It also puts total US video game spending for the year at $41.0 billion through September, 3% behind the same point in 2025.
NBA 2K27 arrived on September 3, 2026 on Steam, so it reached the top of a year-to-date list with only a month of selling behind it. That is the big caveat on the ranking, and it is also why the chart can move quickly before the year ends.
What are the best-selling games of 2026 worldwide?
No complete global chart exists, but these are the unit milestones publishers have published for 2026 releases. Each number comes from the publisher’s own filing or developer post.
| Game | Verified sales milestone | Date | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resident Evil: Requiem | 8.51 million units sold worldwide | September 30, 2026 | Capcom FY26 Q2 results |
| PRAGMATA | More than 2.5 million units sold | June 30, 2026 | Capcom FY26 Q1 results |
| Slay the Spire 2 | 3 million units sold in its first week | March 13, 2026 | Mega Crit |
| WARDOGS | 3 million copies sold in just over two weeks | September 26, 2026 | BULKHEAD |
| Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve | 1 million units worldwide at the fastest pace in the series | October 9, 2026 | Bandai Namco |
Capcom’s quarterly presentation is the most precise document on the list. Its FY26 Q2 results list Resident Evil: Requiem at 851 in a table measured in units of 10,000, which is 8.51 million cumulative units, with 1.59 million more sold in the quarter itself. The same filing says PRAGMATA passed 2.5 million units.
Mega Crit reported 3 million units and more than 25 million runs attempted in its first week in the March newsletter on Slay the Spire 2’s official Steam feed. BULKHEAD said WARDOGS passed 3 million copies in just over two weeks. Bandai Namco said Ace Combat 8 hit 1 million units worldwide at the fastest pace in the franchise.
We analyzed five publisher-reported sales milestones, starting with Capcom’s FY26 Q2 presentation, and checked every number against the original filing or developer post. The result is cleaner than most “best games of 2026” lists. In the US, NBA 2K27 leads because it reached the chart in September with the autumn selling season ahead of it. The largest unit figure we verified belongs to Resident Evil: Requiem. Circana does not publish unit counts for its ranking, so any site claiming exact copy totals from that chart is guessing.
How do sales figures differ from player counts?
Digital point-of-sale actuals are Circana’s label for measured digital sales. Digital sales projections are its estimate for digital sales from publishers that do not share point-of-sale data. Titles marked with actuals carry the stronger number, which is why NBA 2K27 and Resident Evil: Requiem can be ranked confidently while several games below them use estimates.
Units and players are different animals. A sale is a purchase, a player is an account that can be online on any platform, and a subscriber can count as a user without buying a game. Resident Evil: Requiem’s 8.51 million units and AION 2’s 400,000 players in 18 days measure completely separate things, which is why our Steam player-count tracker sits alongside this chart instead of replacing it.
For example, Resident Evil: Requiem is second on the US chart and 8.51 million units worldwide, while Slay the Spire 2 sits outside Circana’s top ten but sold 3 million units in its first week.
| If you want to know | Use this list |
|---|---|
| The biggest game in the US right now | Circana’s US year-to-date chart |
| The biggest 2026 launch by published units | The publisher milestones above |
| The most-played game on Steam at a given moment | Our live player-count tracker |
What is the best-selling new game of 2026?
NBA 2K27 in the United States. Resident Evil: Requiem, which launched on February 26, 2026, is the biggest publisher-reported 2026 release worldwide at 8.51 million units.
How many copies has Resident Evil: Requiem sold?
8.51 million units worldwide as of September 30, 2026, per Capcom’s FY26 Q2 presentation. Capcom’s earlier quarterly report had the game past 8 million units at the end of June.
How is this different from our tier list of 2026’s biggest games?
Our tier list of 2026’s biggest games is an opinion ranking built from reviews, sales figures and player sentiment. This page is the opposite: it ranks by measured spending and published units, and says which market and method each number covers.
What could still change the list?
GTA 6 launches on November 19, 2026, and our GTA 6 release date page tracks the countdown. It arrives with six weeks left in the year, so the annual chart has time to move again. Circana also updates its monthly rankings, and publishers keep posting unit milestones. The other side of the ledger is our weekly Steam Charts report, which tracks how launch crowds shrink over time.
Edited by Kerwin Stewart, Editor-in-Chief · How we report
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Join the discussion Does Circana's US chart match your sense of 2026's biggest games, or do the global sales milestones change your list?
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