XBOX Opts To Stop Sharing Digital Sales Numbers With Circana

Circana has been invaluable service for gamers interested in the sales of said games. They’d publicly share monthly sales numbers of video games across platforms, publishers, and the like, but two big players have decided that’s not for them anymore. Alongside Electronic Arts, which has recently went private in a sale to a trio of investors including Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), XBOX has decided to stop sharing digital sales.

As reported by Kotaku, the platform is “no longer a digital data sharing panel participating publisher.” This means if Circana is to share XBOX numbers, they’re gonna be akin to Nintendo’s numbers, which are well-educated estimates and analysis. Even some devs who aren’t part of the circle were able to be estimated based on platform performance, but that’s a lot more difficult with two of the main platforms pulling out.

Honestly this is a huge blow to XBOX’s bid in being more transparent with their community, as really now we have no way of reliably knowing how well — or poorly — a first-party XBOX game has sold. Similarly, XBOX has reportedly pulled out of similar services like Europe’s Game Sales Data. What this means is the only numbers that will be accurate is going to PlayStation, as Nintendo never played ball and now XBOX doesn’t either.