SUMMARYU.S. console sales have fallen sharply, with PlayStation 5 down 25% and Xbox retail sales down 33% year to date, according to Circana analyst Mat Piscatella. He linked the decline to higher prices after multiple increases from Microsoft and Sony, including Xbox Series S and X models now costing up to $799.99 and PS5 models ranging from $599.99 to $899.99. Piscatella said the U.S. hardware market is now in its most precarious position since the early 1980s.
"Video game console sales in the U.S. have cratered," reports Tom's Hardware, with sales through August far below where they'd been in 2025:
Mat Piscatella, the video game industry advisor at research firm Circana, shared the numbers on his Bluesky account - PlayStation 5 sales have dropped by 25%, putting it at its lowest point since 2013, when gamers held off buying PlayStation consoles in anticipation of the arrival of the PS4, while Xbox's retail figures have cratered by 33% YTD, putting its sales numbers at an all-time low since its launch almost 25 years ago.
Piscatella said price sensitivity is becoming a real problem among gamers, especially as the chip shortage has pushed console manufacturers to raise prices. Microsoft has raised the price of the Xbox three times in the past two years, with the 512GB versions jumping by $100 and 1TB models becoming $150 more expensive. Worse, the company has killed off the 2TB model. This brought the Xbox Series S to $499.99 (512GB) and $599.99 (1TB), while the Xbox Series X now costs $749.99 for the Digital Edition, and the disc version costs $50 more at $799.99.
PlayStation fans haven't escaped these price hikes, as Sony raised prices for that console by $100 to $150. The base Digital Edition PS5 now costs $599.99, while the version with an optical drive is priced at $649.99. If you want the PS5 Pro, you'll have to shell out $899.99, while those who want to stream games from their console via the PlayStation Portal must now pay $249.99 - $50 higher than its $199.99 launch price. Even used consoles didn't escape inflation, with Sony bumping the price of refurbished PS5 Slim consoles by $100, bringing them to $399.
"Still, Piscatella says the U.S. hardware market has never been more precarious since the early 1980s."