Xbox hardware sales just had their worst May ever in the US, as PlayStation 5 sales plummet by 58% compared to a year ago.
The wave of price rises for consoles over the past year increasingly threatens to make gaming unaffordable for the masses, and new sales data proves it’s already starting to have a very negative effect.
In the latest report from research firm Circana, hardware spending for PlayStation 5 consoles dropped by 43% in May 2026, compared to a year ago. There was a 58% drop in unit sales too, due to the price increase which came into effect in early April.
On the Xbox side, hardware spending actually grew 7% compared to a year ago (thanks to the increased console price since October in the US), but unit sales fell by 12%.
As noted by Circana’s Mat Piscatella on Bluesky, the drop in sales for both these consoles marked a new low for PlayStation and Xbox for the month of May. PlayStation hardware sales fell to their lowest May total since 2000, while Xbox console sales were the ‘lowest ever recorded for a May month’.
These figures are given some context in terms of the price increases. As noted by Piscatella, the average price paid for a video game console reached $502 (£380) in May, up 14% compared to a year ago. Meanwhile, the PlayStation 5 average price increased by 33% to $672 (£508), while the Xbox Series X/S went up by 22% to $524 (£396).
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While console sales typically decline over the lifetime of a format, the fact these sales represent a new historical low for May – and in the case of Xbox, over the entire company’s lifespan – isn’t a good sign for the future of the console business.
There are, however, some positives. Overall hardware spending in May grew 38% to $249 million (£188 million) compared to a year ago, with the Nintendo Switch 2, and the price rises, offsetting the declines elsewhere.
Nintendo’s console was the month’s best-selling hardware in terms of units and dollar sales, and is the highest-selling console of 2026 to date. In the US, the Switch 2 has sold 5.9 million units since it launched in June last year.
Additionally, the Switch 2 is the second fastest-selling console in US history (or post-1995 when Circana’s tracking began). It’s only behind the Game Boy Advance, which racked up 6.5 million unit sales within its first year.
While Nintendo is looking rosy right now, a worldwide price hike for the Switch 2 comes into effect in September (which still hasn’t been given a price tag in the UK) – so we’ll have to see if its success will continue in the final stretch of 2026.
On the software side, 007 First Light topped the best-sellers list for May, ahead of Forza Horizon 6, Lego Batman: Legacy Of The Dark Knight, and Subnautica 2 respectively. The other new entry inside the top 10 was Yoshi And The Mysterious Book at number eight.
007 First Light, even more impressively, debuted at number four on the top 10 best-selling games of the year so far, behind only Resident Evil Requiem, Crimson Desert, and MLB: The Show 26. Forza Horizon 6 was just behind at number five, while Lego Batman debuted on the list at number seven. Overall, May was a pretty spectacular month for new games.
It’s a mixed bag of positives and negatives, but for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, this downwards plummet likely won’t improve until GTA 6 launches in November.
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