Xbox and EA Stop Sharing Sales Data With Circana

Circana, the market research firm that tracks U.S. video game industry sales and performance, has lost two significant data sources. As of July 2026, Xbox no longer submits digital sales information to Circana’s reporting panel. EA also exited the panel recently, tying its departure to the company’s transition to private ownership. The exits remove verified transparency from the monthly reports that journalists, analysts, and industry professionals depend on to understand how the gaming market actually operates.

Every month, Circana publishes data on which games are selling well, how different consoles perform relative to each other, and the overall health of the U.S. gaming industry. For physical game sales, retailers and tracking services supply raw numbers. Digital storefronts—the Microsoft Store, PlayStation Network, Nintendo eShop—operate as walled gardens. To know how well games sell through digital channels, Circana relies on publishers and platform holders who voluntarily join its “digital data sharing panel” and provide sales figures. Until recently, Xbox and EA were core participants, meaning their reported numbers filled Circana’s analysis with confirmed data rather than estimates.

Why This Transparency Matters

For many players, sales figures seem irrelevant to the actual experience of gaming. But verified market data serves an essential function in any industry. It provides a neutral record of what is actually happening, independent of the companies involved. When publishers and platforms voluntarily share that data, journalists, analysts, and the gaming community gain the ability to fact-check corporate claims, identify industry trends, and understand the real consequences of business decisions.

Without reliable data, companies gain control over their own narratives. They can claim a game underperformed to justify layoffs without public contradiction. They can exaggerate a title’s success to attract investors or justify poor decisions. They can misrepresent market conditions to cover up strategic failures. Transparent third-party data is the only check against these claims.

The Xbox Problem

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Xbox’s departure carries particular weight because the platform hosted some of the industry’s largest franchises, especially Call of Duty—a series that publishes major annual installments and has historically dominated sales charts year after year. Removing Xbox from the reporting panel eliminates verified data on all Xbox first-party digital games sold in the United States. Those titles—from Game Pass releases to exclusive properties—now appear in Circana reports as estimates rather than confirmed figures.

The impact extends beyond Xbox exclusives. Publishers like Ubisoft and EA produce multiplatform games that sell across Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Before they dropped off the panel, analysts could at least infer some of their sales on Xbox from the platform holder’s data. Now, that indirect accounting is impossible. If those publishers do not voluntarily share figures with Circana, their entire digital performance becomes invisible. The monthly software charts, as a result, are now filled with educated guesses rather than confirmed numbers, even for titles from major studios.

The Shrinking Data Panel

Historical Pattern of Publisher Exits

Publishers leaving Circana’s reporting panel is not unprecedented. Ubisoft dropped off years ago and has not returned. Take-Two also exited at one point, though the company eventually rejoined. What differs now is the scale and timing—losing both a major platform holder and a massive publisher simultaneously signals a possible shift in industry attitudes toward transparency.

Who Remains on the Panel

The current digital data sharing panel includes Bandai Namco, Capcom, Crystal Dynamics, Disney Interactive Studios, Eidos, Konami, Plaion, Sega, Sony, Square Enix, Take-Two, and Warner Bros. This remains a respectable collection of major studios, yet the roster now has visible gaps. Nintendo has never participated and continues to rely on estimates. Blizzard Entertainment and Valve do not report Battle.net or Steam sales through Circana’s official channels, leaving the largest PC gaming platform almost entirely undocumented.

The Backdoor Problem

What made Xbox’s participation especially valuable was that it operated as a backdoor. Even publishers who refused to share data directly could have their Xbox sales tracked through Microsoft’s reporting. With Xbox gone, that entire data path closes. Publishers can now sell on Xbox with zero public accountability regarding their performance on that platform.

Digital Dominance and the Coming Blind Spot

The timing of these exits arrives at a critical moment. Digital game sales already represent a major portion of total industry revenue and continue growing as consumers shift from physical to digital purchasing. PlayStation plans to end disc production entirely by 2028, moving the platform fully into digital-only territory. Xbox is expected to follow a similar path; its physical sales already lag far behind competitors. Steam and Battle.net have never reported through traditional retail channels.

As the industry transitions to all-digital distribution, the ability to track market performance becomes entirely dependent on voluntary disclosure from publishers and platforms. If PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo all chose to withhold data like Xbox and EA have done, the industry would become completely opaque from the outside. Companies would control their own narratives with zero fear of public contradiction.

There are unconfirmed reports that Xbox may have also exited Game Sales Data (GSD), a European equivalent to Circana that tracks sales across other regions. If verified, the data loss would be even more severe, extending beyond the U.S. market.

The Broader Erosion of Accountability

The gradual disappearance of transparent market data is not one dramatic shift but a collection of small exits and exclusions. Nintendo’s long-standing position outside Circana’s digital reporting. The lack of Steam data. Blizzard’s separation. Ubisoft’s historical absence. And now Xbox and EA’s recent departures. Each removal adds friction to the ability of outsiders to understand how the gaming industry actually works.

This erosion matters because it allows large corporations to tighten control over how their games and business decisions are perceived. Journalists investigating industry practices cannot point to verified sales figures to support their reporting. Analysts making predictions must acknowledge larger margins of uncertainty. Players seeking to understand why certain games receive different support or why studios make particular strategic choices lack the data needed to form informed opinions.

An Uncertain Path Forward

For now, Circana continues its analysis using the data sources remaining and applies analytical rigor to fill the gaps as best as possible. But the direction of industry travel is clear: fewer sources of transparency, more corporate control over narratives, and increasing difficulty for external parties to hold publishers accountable through facts rather than opinion.

As physical media disappears and digital sales become the entire market, the need for publishers and platforms to share accurate sales data only increases. The question facing the industry is whether that transparency will be voluntarily provided or whether gaming will become the only major entertainment medium where the public has no reliable way to verify how successful its products actually are.