Console prices keep going up, and Americans are buying fewer of them. Circana is the market research firm that tracks US game sales, and its numbers are the industry’s standard reference. Circana analyst Mat Piscatella says US Xbox hardware sales are down 33% year to date compared with 2025, while PlayStation hardware is down 25%.
For Xbox, that’s the lowest point Circana has ever tracked. For PlayStation, it’s the weakest year since 2013, when the PS4 was brand new.
The cause isn’t a mystery. Through August, the average price paid for a new Xbox in the US was $529, 26% higher than a year earlier. The average PlayStation sold for $597, up 20%. Both are all-time US highs. “Price sensitivity is becoming a real problem,” Piscatella said.
Most of those increases trace back to memory. AI data centers are buying up RAM and storage chips, which has pushed component costs up across consumer electronics. PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Switch 2 have all had price increases, some more than once. Micron’s CEO has said the shortage could last until at least 2028.
Piscatella’s bluntest line: “The US hardware market has not been in a more precarious position since the early 80s.” That’s the era of the 1983 video game crash, so it’s a deliberately grim comparison.
The obvious hope is Grand Theft Auto VI on November 19. Piscatella thinks it could ease some of the decline, but only if consoles are priced right and actually in stock. Memory shortages limit how many systems Sony and Microsoft can build, so a GTA bump may run into empty shelves.
Our read: we analyzed Circana’s year-to-date numbers: a $529 average Xbox and a $597 average PlayStation mean the typical console now costs more than $500 before games. For you, the practical upshot is simple. Don’t wait for a holiday price cut on PS5 or Xbox this year. Nothing in these numbers suggests one is coming, and if GTA 6 does move hardware, the deals you’ll see in November are more likely to be bundles than discounts. If you’re deciding which system to buy at these prices, our guide to choosing a platform walks through the five questions that matter, and the GTA 6 hub tracks any bundle news.
Edited by Kerwin Stewart, Editor-in-Chief · How we report
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