Console Prices Hit Records as Xbox Sales Fall to an All-Time Low

Circana says US Xbox hardware sales fell 33% this year through August, while the average new PlayStation sold for a record $597.

The average American who bought a new PlayStation this year paid $597 for it, the highest price on record, according to the market research firm Circana.

Fewer people are paying it. Through August, US sales of PlayStation hardware were down 25% in units from a year earlier and Xbox fell 33%, Circana senior director Mat Piscatella wrote on Bluesky on Friday. That's the worst year-to-date stretch Xbox has ever logged in Circana's tracking, and PlayStation's weakest since 2013.

Piscatella paired the numbers with a warning that the US console hardware business hasn't been this shaky "since the early 80s," VGC reported.

Xbox buyers aren't getting a break either. A new Xbox went for $529 on average this year, 26% more than a year ago, while the PlayStation average climbed 20%, VGC reported from Circana's figures. Both are all-time US highs, Piscatella wrote, and shoppers' sensitivity to price is turning into a real problem.

VGC puts most of the jump on component shortages driven by AI data centers, whose hunger for memory chips has pushed price hikes across nearly all consumer electronics. Microsoft raised the price of its Xbox consoles by $100 to $150 this summer, VGC reported.

Set the Xbox number next to what the company was saying a few months ago. In June, Xbox chief strategy officer Matthew Ball said demand for the console was bigger than the supply Microsoft could produce, according to VGC. Through August, Circana counted fewer Xbox units sold in the US than in the same months of any year it has tracked.

Piscatella's best hope has a release date. "Perhaps the release of the Big Video Game in November will help ease at least some of these declines," he wrote, a nod to Grand Theft Auto 6, which is due Nov. 19, according to VGC. How much it helps, he said, depends on whether stores can get consoles at all.

One store is already pricing for that rush. VGC reported Wednesday that GameStop was asking $1,399.99 for a used PS5 Pro and had no new units in stock online. A new one runs $899.99, according to VGC. A senior buyer at an unnamed retailer told The Game Business this summer that GTA 6 would probably sell through the console stock stores have.

The parts squeeze isn't on a clock that ends in November. Memory maker Micron told investors on its latest earnings call that demand would outrun supply through 2027 and 2028, and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said, according to The Register, "We do not have line of sight to when supply and demand will return to balance."

Source: videogameschronicle.com, retrieved October 10, 2026. Other sources: videogameschronicle.com (2), videogameschronicle.com (3), bsky.app.