Having just come out earlier this month, adventure game South of Midnight is proving itself to be quite successful for developer Compulsion Games and Microsoft. According to Circana analyst Mat Piscatella, South of Midnight ranked in 9th when it came to weekly active users on Xbox.
In a post on social media platform BlueSky, Piscatella shared charts showing off the most played games on all platforms across the US, Canada and Mexico: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Steam (US), Steam (Canada), and Steam (Mexico). These charts measure active player counts for the week ending on April 12.
For the consoles, Call of Duty dominated the number one spot in terms of active players, followed by Fortnite. Things diverge from there onwards, however; where GTA 5 Remastered sits at number 3 for PlayStation, the spot on Xbox Series X/S is taken up by Minecraft.
Going further down the charts, South of Midnight sits at number 9 on Xbox, between Rainbow Six Siege at number 8 and EA Sports College Football 25 at number 10. When it comes to the top 15 played games on Steam, however, South of Midnight was unable to break through into the charts.
South of Midnight is a single-player action adventure game that takes place in the American Deep South. Players take on the role of Hazel – a young girl that has set out on a journey to become a Weaver. Along the way, Hazel has to deal with encounters based on different myths, as well as take on the forces of the Haints in order to survive and complete her journey.
The studio had previously explained that, with the story in South of Midnight, it didn’t want a “chosen one” narrative. At GDC 2025, writer Zaire Lanier spoke about creating the game’s narrative, saying that Hazel’s state of mind at the start of the game is “in this weird liminal space between [being] a kid and becoming an adult.”
According to Lanier, the game’s narrative works because of the idea that “anyone can be a Weaver, it’s something that the land will choose for you, when you’re in a time of deep need. So Hazel, when she’s chasing after her mom’s trailer in the hurricane, the land chooses her.”
“It’s kind of at random, she blinks and you can see the strands in the sky,” Lanier explained. “Weavers are able to see the fabric of the universe – we call it the grand tapestry – and they’re able to manipulate those strands to do various types of spells. Their mission is that they heal stigma in the land where bad things have happened.”
“[Weavers] are able to see into your traumas. They don’t fix your traumas for you, only you can do that, but they listen to your story, they see your story, they get to see those memories, and I think sometimes that’s what you need.”
South of Midnight is available on PC and Xbox Series X/S. The game is also available through PC and Xbox Game Pass. Check out our review for more details.
Circana Player Engagement Tracker – Top 15 Titles by Total Weekly Active Users (Not Concurrent) – W/E Apr 12, 2025- South of Midnight reaches 9th on Xbox- …not many other big changes at the top of the rankings tbh
— Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) 2025-04-21T12:58:40.825Z
