Price increases triggered by the increase in memory and storage costs began to directly affect the game console market. New information from the US market shows that PlayStation and Xbox models experienced a significant decrease in sales in May 2026.

Information shared by market research company Circana analyst Mat Piscatella reveals the shrinkage in the department. While PlayStation exhibited its lowest May sales performance in the USA since 2000, Microsoft’s Xbox consoles also achieved their lowest May sales on record.

Record decline in sales and market dynamics

Unit sales of PlayStation consoles decreased by 58 percent compared to the same period last year. This decrease was reflected as a 43 percent loss on the revenue side.

It is said that the increases between 100 and 150 dollars that Sony applied to PS5 models in March were decisive in this table. Although Microsoft also made price updates on the Xbox Series S and Series X models, Xbox sales decreased by 12 percent on an annual basis.

Interestingly, despite the price increases, Xbox hardware revenues rose 7 percent. Hardware spending in the total console market increased by 38 percent.

Nintendo Switch 2 impact and future expectations

The biggest share in the total spending increase in the market was related to the Nintendo Switch 2 model. It is stated that approximately 5.9 million units of the console were sold in the USA in its first year and that it is the second fastest portable game console in the country since 1995.

Experts do not expect console costs to decrease in the short term due to the intense demand of artificial intelligence data centers for memory and storage chips. Current forecasts indicate that a significant normalization in component prices will not occur before 2028.

While it is rumored that new price increases may come to the agenda for the rest of the year, it is thought that large productions such as Grand Theft Auto VI may revive the console demand.

How do you think these price increases and sales decreases in game consoles will follow in the coming period?