Xbox and PlayStation hardware sales plunge as prices surge in U.S.
Xbox hit its worst May on record and PS5 fell to its weakest May since 2000, even as U.S. hardware spending rose 38% to $249 million.
Xbox logged its worst May on record in the U.S. hardware market, while PlayStation 5 posted its lowest May since 2000, a sharp sign that higher console prices are changing how players buy into the generation. Circana’s June hardware figures showed PS5 unit sales down 58% from the same month a year earlier and Xbox Series hardware units down 12%, even as total hardware spending climbed 38% to $249 million.
The category’s growth came from price, not volume. The average price paid for a new piece of video game hardware reached $502 in May, up 14% year over year, while PS5 averaged $672, a 33% increase, and Xbox hardware averaged $524, up 22%. That means fewer consoles left store shelves, but the systems that did sell were carrying much higher price tags.
Nintendo Switch 2 is doing most of the work holding the market together. Nintendo’s new system was the best-selling hardware platform in both units and dollars for May and for 2026 year to date, and it reached 5.9 million installed units in the U.S. by the end of its first year. That made Switch 2 the second-fastest-selling tracked hardware launch in U.S. history, behind only the Game Boy Advance. In a month when Sony and Microsoft were both leaning into higher pricing, Nintendo’s launch momentum was the clearest reason hardware spending did not fall with unit sales.
Microsoft then added another price increase of its own. The cheapest disc-free Xbox Series X is set to rise to $749.99 on August 1, while the cheapest Series S will climb to $499.99. Those changes push Xbox hardware further into premium territory at exactly the moment the market is rewarding the platform that offers the strongest mix of price, novelty, and momentum.
The bigger question for Xbox is no longer just whether May was weak. It is what the hardware business is supposed to do in a market where players are spending more money overall, but are doing it through a shrinking number of higher-priced systems. Right now, Switch 2 is driving the category and Xbox is charging more to stay in it.
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