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It’s no surprise to anyone in the market for a new gaming console that prices have risen quite a bit in the last year and are set to change, but new insights from a trusted industry analyst put some context on just how bad things have gotten.
The current RAM shortage, along with tariff-driven hardware price increases, has boosted each of the big three console manufacturers; Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo; to raise console prices several times in less than two years. If you want a new PS5 Pro, you’re looking at $900, while the disc version of the Xbox Series X is now priced at $800. Meanwhile, Nintendo’s second Switch 2 price increase means you’ll have to spend $500 on the base model of the current-gen system.
Circana’s Mat Piscatella, citing data from the company’s US retail tracking system, says these price increases have, unsurprisingly, resulted in slowing sales for both Sony and Microsoft. Specifically, “For the year 2026 through August, Xbox hardware unit sales are down 33% from a year ago in the US, while PlayStation hardware units are 25% lower,” Piscatella says at Bluesky. “Xbox hardware unit sales in the US to date are at an all-time low, while PlayStation is at its lowest point since 2013.”
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Looking at changes in console prices so far this year in averages and percentages, Piscatella says that “the average price a consumer has paid for a new Xbox console in 2026 year-to-date through August is $529, up 26% from a year ago, while the average PlayStation console has sold for $597, up 20% from last year.
“Both prices are at all-time highs in the United States. Price sensitivity is becoming a real problem.”
Perhaps the release of the big video game in November will help alleviate at least some of these declines. But this will also depend on the availability of the product given the RAM and component crisis. And the price, of course. The US hardware market has not been in a more precarious position since the early 1980s.
— @matpiscatella.bsky.social (@matpiscatella.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-10-09T18:15:04.217Z
“Price sensitivity is becoming a real problem” might be the most relatable phrase possible living in the US in 2026, but Piscatella shares a small ray of hope in a certain video game that rhymes with Grand Theft Auto Fix. “Perhaps the launch of the big video game in November will help alleviate at least some of these declines,” says Piscatella, clearly alluding to GTA 6, but even that is a great uncertainty. “This will also depend on the availability of the product given the crisis of RAM and components. And on prices, of course,” says Piscatella, concluding with a dramatic contextualization of the current environment:
“The US hardware market has not been in a more precarious situation since the early 1980s.”
Of course, Piscatella appears to be referencing the historic video game collapse that occurred between 1983 and 1985, in which revenue attributed to U.S. home video game sales fell 97%, from around $3.2 billion in 1983 to $100 million in 1985. We haven’t reached that level of catastrophe yet, and there are hopes that component shortages and tariff-related costs will eventually may stabilize and relieve some of the pressure on the console market, but heading into the holiday season, console buyers shouldn’t expect substantial relief outside of big sales like Black Friday.
‘Supply has been constantly available’: Acer CEO says it’s ‘impossible’ for memory shortages to last until 2030, but average PC prices will still rise 5% to 20% by end of 2026