The month of May had seen a drastic downfall in terms of sales for both Playstation and Xbox consoles, which is now considered as possibly their lowest recorded ever, and was clearly an effect of their earlier price rises in recent years. In fact, Playstation’s console sales had been the lowest it had in more than 25 years, while sales of Xbox were the ‘lowest ever recorded’. And interestingly, both consoles had raised their prices significantly in the past few months with Xbox scheduled for another spike (by $100 and more) in price from August.
But even that may not be the end of price hikes as Xbox expects storage and memory prices to become double by next year which may possibly lead to yet another increase in console prices. And surprisingly, spending for Xbox hardware has actually grown to 7% more than what they were a year ago, but total unit sales fell by 12% which is directly the result of both Xbox Series X|S costing more in May this year than it did the previous year as Microsoft increased their prices by $20-$70 in the U.S. since last October.
Mat Piscatella, Senior Director, Video Games at Circana has confirmed the severe fall in sales numbers for both consoles: “PlayStation hardware unit sales fell to their lowest May total since May 2000, while Xbox hardware unit sales were the lowest ever recorded for a May month.”
Portraying how console gaming has become far more expensive than ever, Circana also posted the following statistics which is staggering: “The average price paid for a new unit of video game hardware reached $502 in May, up 14% compared to a year ago ($440). May 2026 PlayStation 5 average pricing increased by 33% versus a year ago to $672, with Xbox Series up 22%, to $524.”
The massive decline in console sales suggest that the average consumer doesn’t want to spend that much amount for gaming as the companies that run the industry potentially wants them to and it’d be interesting to see how both console companies interpret these sales figures and the approach they take in the near future.
