From Circana's U.S. Retail Tracking Service: For the year-to-date period ending in August 2026, Xbox hardware unit sales in the U.S. are down 33% compared to a year ago, while PlayStation hardware unit sales are down 25%. Xbox’s year-to-date U.S. hardware unit sales are at an all-time low, while PlayStation’s are at their lowest point since 2013.
— Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) October 9, 2026, 11:00 PM
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Mat Piscatella, Senior Director and Video Game Industry Advisor at market research firm Circana, posted data from Circana’s US Retail Tracking Service on Bluesky. It appears that Xbox and PlayStation sales in the U.S. have fallen sharply.
Will major titles releasing in November help mitigate the decline?
According to Piscatella, from the beginning of 2026 through August, Xbox hardware sales in the U.S. fell 33% year-over-year, while PlayStation hardware sales dropped 25%.This marks the slowest pace of Xbox hardware sales in the U.S. on record, while PS hardware sales appear to have hit their lowest level in 13 years—since the same period in 2013, when the PS4 was about to launch.
According to other data, from the beginning of 2026 through August, the average price consumers paid for a new Xbox console was $529 (a 26% increase year-over-year).The average selling price for PS consoles was $597 (up 20% year-over-year), with both figures reportedly reaching all-time highs in the U.S. Rising prices for game consoles, driven by global economic conditions and soaring component costs, are becoming a serious issue.
Piscatella also commented, “A ‘major game title’ (presumably ‘GTA 6’) set to launch in November might help alleviate this decline, at least to some extent.” However, he added, “Given the current shortages of RAM and various components, it will ultimately depend on product inventory levels.”
Game console sales continue to be affected by soaring prices of various components. All eyes are now on whether the release of “GTA 6” will bring any changes.
