Each month, Circana online game analyst Mat Piscatella posts fascinating information about online game gross sales on Bluesky, highlighting developments like November’s historically bad month for game hardware and Battlefield 6’s big launch in October. However he doesn’t simply share information about what’s promoting essentially the most; as of late, he’s additionally posted pleasant lists of video games which have offered only a single bodily copy over a sure time frame, and the lists typically embody retro video games that take me down reminiscence lane or titles that I didn’t even know existed.
The checklist of video games that offered one bodily copy in October, for instance, contains the Xbox 360 model of Burnout Paradise and Hasbro Household Recreation Evening 3 for the PS3. On Thursday, Piscatella posted the “2025 Circana Thread for Sickos” highlighting video games that solely offered one bodily unit over the complete yr throughout varied handhelds and consoles.
That checklist of video games that offered a single unit in October was born out of a question from a person on Bluesky, Piscatella tells The Verge. “Individuals appeared to benefit from the mixture of journey down reminiscence lane and the treasure looking thought of those video games being on the market someplace,” Piscatella says. Then individuals began asking him about it, so he thought it’d be enjoyable to maintain doing it.
Circana is ready to monitor the info as a result of it has agreements with “all main retailers” that allow it compile and analyze point-of-sale information, Piscatella says. “If a retailer’s point-of-sale system scans a product as a sale, it would present up within the information.” Which means all of the video games he has talked about in these threads “had one new unit floating round on the market by some means that was offered by a register or through a web-based buy. Maybe it was a unit that had been misplaced someplace within the again, or was buried beneath a show, or who is aware of.”
Whereas it’s enjoyable to look again and chortle at a few of the video games individuals purchased — I really feel sorry for the poor soul who bought Metroid: Different M for the Wii final yr — individuals shopping for an older, obscure sport from a retailer is extra widespread than you would possibly assume, Piscatella says. “There have been greater than 1,000 video games throughout all platforms (together with PC) that offered between one and 5 new bodily items within the US throughout 2025, whereas over 3,500 completely different video games offered at the least one new bodily unit at retail final yr general,” in line with Piscatella. “Retailers have every kind of stuff hidden away in these shops of theirs.”
I requested Piscatella how lengthy he plans to proceed making the threads highlighting video games promoting only one copy. “As long as it stays enjoyable, I reckon,” he says. “However who is aware of.”