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US Xbox hardware sales fell 33% and PlayStation sales dropped 25% year to date through August 2026, reaching historic lows. Average prices hit records of $529 for Xbox and $597 for PlayStation, as component costs rise. GTA 6 may support holiday sales, but shortages and high prices could limit recovery.
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New data from Circana’s US Retail Tracking Service shows how badly the console market has deteriorated in 2026, with Xbox hardware sales hitting an all-time low and PlayStation posting its weakest performance in 13 years.
For the year to date through August, Xbox hardware unit sales are down 33% compared with the same period in 2025, while PlayStation hardware sales are down 25%. According to analyst Mat Piscatella, who shared the figures on Bluesky, that puts Xbox at an all-time low for US sales, while PlayStation hasn’t been this weak since 2013, the year before the PS4 launched at the tail end of the PS3 era. Unlike then, there’s no next-gen console waiting in the wings this time.
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The average price consumers paid for a new Xbox console this year was $529, up 26% from a year ago, while PlayStation buyers paid an average of $597, up 20%. Both figures are all-time US highs. “Both prices are at all-time US highs. Price sensitivity is becoming a real problem,” Piscatella said.
- Read more: PlayStation and Xbox record their worst May in decades after recent price increases
Those increases trace back to an ongoing memory shortage, as AI data centre demand has pulled RAM manufacturers like Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron away from consumer-grade memory production towards the specialised memory used in AI infrastructure. That has driven up the cost of console components, and manufacturers have passed those costs on to buyers.
Sony raised the PS5 Pro to $899.99 in April, Microsoft pushed the Xbox Series X to $799.99 in August, and Nintendo bumped the Switch 2 to $499.99 in September. Some models have become even more expensive. The Xbox Series X 2TB has reportedly been discontinued entirely due to cost, while the PS5 Pro is going for as much as $1,400 used at GameStop amid persistent shortages.
Across the board, console buyers are now paying roughly $200 more than they did at launch for systems that are six years old, a sharp reversal of the usual pattern of prices falling over a console generation’s lifespan. August was particularly weak, with total hardware unit sales falling 15% to 559,000, the lowest August total since 2013.
Piscatella said, “The US hardware market has not been in a more precarious position since the early 80s,” referring to the video game crash of 1983 to 1985, when US home console revenue collapsed from roughly $3.2 billion to just $100 million in two years.
There’s some hope that GTA 6’s November launch could provide a boost, with Take-Two Interactive’s CFO saying the company expects “GTA 6 to help drive console sales” during the 2026 holiday season, even with higher prices. Piscatella said, “Perhaps the release of the Big Video Game in November will help ease at least some of these declines.” However, he cautioned that any recovery depends heavily on console availability and pricing heading into the holidays.
What is driving record-high average prices for Xbox and PlayStation consoles in the US?
How could memory shortages projected through 2028 affect launch pricing for PS6 and Microsoft’s next Xbox?
What has Sony revealed about PS6 development and its possible launch window?
Sony has not confirmed a PS6 launch window or disclosed a development timeline in these reports. In the separate story “Sony says PlayStation 6 release date and pricing are still up in the air,” Sony CEO Hiroki Totoki said both remain uncertain because of the memory crisis. A possible 2027 launch comes from a leaker, not a Sony announcement.
What factors could determine whether GTA 6 boosts console sales during the 2026 holiday season?
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As for the global RAMpocalypse, relief doesn’t seem likely anytime soon. Micron’s CEO recently warned that memory shortages are expected to persist until at least 2028. With both Xbox’s rumoured Helix hardware family and Sony’s PS6 still on the horizon, there’s a real possibility that whatever comes next could launch north of $1,000 or force manufacturers to absorb steep losses just to keep prices within reach.
