Consoles Cost More Than Ever, and Fewer Americans Are Buying Them
- Americans are paying more for game consoles than ever, and they are buying fewer of them.
- For Xbox, that is an all-time low for the year-to-date period.
- The clearest change is in what people pay.
Americans are paying more for game consoles than ever, and they are buying fewer of them. Through August, Xbox hardware unit sales in the US were down 33% from a year earlier and PlayStation unit sales were down 25%, according to Circana’s US retail tracking, shared by analyst Mat Piscatella.
For Xbox, that is an all-time low for the year-to-date period. For PlayStation, it is the lowest point since 2013. Piscatella’s read on the wider market was blunt: “The US hardware market has not been in a more precarious position since the early 80s.”
The price of a console keeps rising
The clearest change is in what people pay. The average new Xbox console sold in the US this year through August went for $529, up 26% from a year ago. The average PlayStation console sold for $597, up 20%. Piscatella said both are all-time US highs and that “price sensitivity is becoming a real problem.”
August on its own told the same story. Circana’s monthly report showed these changes from August 2025:
| Measure | August 2026 | Change from a year earlier |
|---|---|---|
| Total US video game spending | $4.3 billion | Down 9% |
| Hardware spending | $302 million | Down 3% |
| Hardware units sold | 559,000 | Down 15%, the lowest August since 2013 |
| PlayStation hardware units | Not disclosed | Down 11% |
| Xbox hardware units | Not disclosed | Down 31% |
| Nintendo hardware units | Not disclosed | Down 15% |
| Average price paid for new hardware | $541 | An August record, up from $476 |
Spending fell far less than units because each machine now costs more. PS5 was the one bright spot: its hardware dollar sales rose 17% in August, while spending on Xbox Series and Switch 2 hardware each fell 13%. Switch 2 still led the US market in both units and dollars, for August and for the year so far, with PS5 in second place.
Why “the early 80s” stands out
In the games business, the early 1980s brings one event to mind: the 1983 crash, when the North American console market collapsed. Piscatella did not predict a repeat. His point was how fragile the hardware market looks now, with fewer buyers and higher prices at the same time.
A lot is riding on November
Grand Theft Auto VI arrives on November 19 for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, and Piscatella pointed to it as a possible lift. “Perhaps the release of the Big Video Game in November will help ease at least some of these declines,” he wrote. He added a caveat in the next breath: that “will also depend on product availability given the RAM and component crisis. And pricing, of course.”
Switch 2, the market’s best-selling console, may not get that lift at all. Nintendo of America’s president would not say whether GTA 6 is coming to Switch 2, passing the question to Take-Two and Rockstar.
That leaves players in an awkward spot: the biggest game in years arrives just as consoles cost more than they ever have. For anyone pricing it out, our breakdown of what GTA 6 costs on day one is a useful place to start. Circana’s September figures, due on October 22, will show whether the slide continued into the fall.
Featured image: A GameStop store in Vallejo, California. Photo: Will Buckner / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
