PS5, Xbox Hardware Sales Hit 13-Year Low: Down 15% [2026]

U.S. video game hardware sales just hit their worst point in 13 years. New data from the market research firm Circana, reported by Yahoo Finance on October 10, 2026, shows August 2026 hardware unit sales down 15% year over year in the United States, the weakest August result since 2013. The culprit isn’t a lack of interest in gaming. It’s a collision between rising console prices and a global memory and storage shortage that’s squeezing every electronics category at once.

Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony have all raised prices on their consoles this year, citing higher component costs and the lingering effect of tariffs. At the same time, shoppers are pulling back. Circana’s own numbers show hardware spending down 3% in August and down 11% for the year to date through August. The PS5 Pro, the one specific product named in the new reporting, sits squarely in the middle of a market where price increases are outpacing demand rather than offsetting it.

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The Circana Numbers: What August 2026 Really Looked Like

Circana tracks U.S. retail sales across every major category, and its games division, led by executive director Mat Piscatella, has become the industry’s go-to source for hardware trend data. The August 2026 snapshot is blunt: unit sales down 15% year over year, a figure Circana says matches the last time hardware moved this slowly, back in 2013. Spending fell a smaller 3%, which tells its own story. Consoles are more expensive than they were a year ago, so even with fewer units leaving shelves, the average price per unit is propping up the dollar figure.

Zoom out to the full year and the picture gets worse. Hardware spending for 2026 through the end of August is down 11% compared to the same stretch in 2025. That’s not a one-month blip tied to a slow release calendar. It’s a sustained pullback that has now lasted the better part of a year, running in parallel with the memory and storage shortage that manufacturers say is driving their own costs up.

Metric	Value (YoY)	What It Means
August 2026 hardware unit sales	-15%	Weakest August in 13 years, matching 2013
August 2026 hardware spending	-3%	Higher prices are softening the unit decline
2026 YTD hardware spending (through Aug.)	-11%	A sustained, multi-month pullback
Companies named in the reporting	Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony	All three raised console prices in 2026
Product named in the reporting	PS5 Pro	Cited as part of the pricier 2026 console lineup

Xbox Hardware Sales Fall to an All-Time Low

Mat Piscatella didn’t soften the Xbox numbers. As he put it, “For 2026 YTD ending August, Xbox hardware unit sales are down 33% versus a year ago in the US, while PlayStation hardware units are 25% lower,” a comparison he shared in coverage picked up by GamesRadar. For Xbox specifically, Piscatella said the figure represents an all-time low for the platform, a notable marker for a console line that Microsoft has sold since 2001.

A 33% year-over-year drop in unit sales is a steep number by any standard, and it lands at a moment when Microsoft has already shifted much of its public messaging toward Xbox Game Pass and its multi-platform software strategy rather than hardware unit counts. That pivot predates this shortage, but the new Circana data gives it fresh context: if hardware demand keeps sliding at this pace, services and software revenue become even more central to how Microsoft frames the Xbox business going forward, a dynamic we’ve tracked in our look at Xbox Game Pass pricing against PS Plus and Switch Online.

PlayStation’s Worst Run Since 2013

Sony isn’t faring much better. The 25% year-to-date unit decline Piscatella cited is, in his words, the platform’s “lowest point since 2013,” according to the same GamesRadar report. That 2013 reference point keeps surfacing in this story for a reason: it was the last time the U.S. console market looked anywhere near this soft, and it’s also the exact comparison Circana used for the broader August hardware figures reported by Yahoo Finance.

Sony has leaned on the PS5 Pro as its premium hardware offering through 2026, and the new reporting places that console inside a lineup where prices have gone up industry-wide. A 25% unit decline alongside a price increase suggests PlayStation buyers are more price-sensitive than Sony’s recent hardware roadmap assumed, even with a built-in base of players already holding standard PS5 consoles from earlier in the generation.

Nintendo Isn’t Immune Either

Nintendo wasn’t named with a specific unit figure in the Circana data described in the Yahoo Finance report, but it was named among the three companies that raised console prices in 2026 citing higher component costs and the earlier effects of tariffs. That matters because Nintendo built the Switch 2’s entire pitch around being the accessible, mass-market option next to pricier PlayStation and Xbox hardware. If Switch 2 pricing is also moving upward, as the reporting indicates, the gap that made Nintendo’s hardware a safer purchase during past downturns narrows. We broke down how the Switch 2’s price positioning compares to competing handhelds in our Switch 2 vs. ROG Xbox Ally X comparison.

Why Console Prices Keep Climbing

The reporting is consistent on motive: Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony have each raised prices this year and pointed to higher component costs, with tariffs cited as a prior contributing factor. None of the three companies broke out exactly how much of a given price increase traces to memory costs versus other inputs, and the available reporting doesn’t confirm specific dollar figures for any single price change. What is confirmed is the direction: consoles across all three platforms cost more in 2026 than they did a year earlier, and all three companies have framed those increases around component economics rather than demand or margin targets.

That framing lines up with what’s happening elsewhere in consumer hardware. Graphics card memory has followed a similar path this year, with GDDR6 pricing moving upward industry-wide, a trend we covered in detail in our piece on the AMD GDDR6 price increase alongside Nvidia’s GDDR7 strategy. Consoles and graphics cards draw from overlapping memory supply chains, so a squeeze in one tends to show up in the other.

The Global Memory and Storage Shortage, Explained

Piscatella’s comments to Circana go beyond pricing. He also flagged early signs of availability problems: “We’re also starting to see, spotty right now, but we’re starting to see some products becoming unavailable, likely because of the RAM and component crisis,” he told Yahoo Finance. The word “likely” is doing real work in that sentence. Circana’s own analyst is describing a probable cause, not a confirmed, fully-traced supply chain failure, and the reporting is careful not to claim a single unavailable SKU has been definitively tied to the chip shortage.

Still, the pattern fits a broader story that’s been building across the memory industry throughout 2026: DRAM, the working memory used in consoles, PCs, and phones, and NAND flash, the storage technology behind console drives, solid-state storage, and mobile devices, have both been described as tight markets this year by chipmakers and analysts tracking the sector. Consoles need both. A PS5 Pro or a Switch 2 can’t ship without DRAM for system memory and NAND for its internal storage, which makes console manufacturers directly exposed to whatever is squeezing those two markets. Firms that track semiconductor pricing, such as TrendForce, have spent much of 2026 flagging unusually tight conditions across both memory categories, part of the same backdrop console makers are now pointing to in their own pricing decisions.

DRAM and NAND Aren’t Optional Components

It’s worth separating the two technologies because they serve different jobs inside a console. DRAM handles active, working memory, the data the console’s processor needs instantly while a game is running. NAND flash is the long-term storage, holding the operating system, installed games, and saved data. A shortage in either one raises the console’s bill of materials, but a shortage in both at the same time, which is what manufacturers have described through 2026, compounds the cost pressure in a way that’s harder to absorb through margin alone.

How AI Data Center Demand Fits Into the Picture

One thread running through coverage of the 2026 memory shortage is the sheer scale of AI infrastructure buildout competing for the same manufacturing capacity that produces console-grade memory. That connection is plausible and widely discussed in the semiconductor industry, but it’s worth being precise about what’s confirmed and what isn’t: the available reporting on the Circana hardware numbers identifies a memory and storage shortage as the proximate cause of rising console prices, without fully establishing a direct, quantified causal chain running from AI data center orders to this specific console sales decline. Readers should treat the AI-demand explanation as a contributing industry factor discussed around this story, not as a confirmed line item in Circana’s own hardware report.

Historical Context: 2026 vs. Past Console Slumps

The 2013 comparison that keeps appearing in this story isn’t a coincidence of timing. Late 2013 was the tail end of the PS3 and Xbox 360 generation, a period when shoppers broadly understood that new hardware was imminent and many delayed purchases accordingly. That’s a demand-side explanation rooted in a known product cycle. The 2026 slowdown is different in kind: there’s no newly announced next-generation PlayStation or Xbox waiting in the wings to explain why buyers are holding back. Instead, the explanation on the table is a cost-side shock, pricier consoles colliding with a supply squeeze, rather than a demand-side one.

That distinction matters for how long this slump might last. A generational lull resolves itself once the next console launches. A component-driven price shock resolves only once memory and storage supply loosens or manufacturers find another way to absorb the cost, neither of which is confirmed to be imminent in the current reporting.

Platform	2026 YTD Unit Sales (through Aug., YoY)	Historical Marker
Xbox	-33%	All-time low for the platform (Circana, via GamesRadar)
PlayStation	-25%	Lowest point since 2013 (Circana, via GamesRadar)
Overall U.S. hardware spending	-11%	Sustained decline through August 2026 (Circana, via Yahoo Finance)

Market Impact: Retailers, Publishers, and the Software Side

Outlets including Polygon picked up the Circana figures on October 10, 2026, framing the decline as a rare moment where PlayStation and Xbox hardware are struggling in tandem rather than one platform gaining at the other’s expense. A hardware slowdown ripples outward. Retailers that built fourth-quarter plans around console bundles now have to weigh whether discounting makes sense when the underlying components are themselves more expensive to replace. Publishers that time big releases around console install-base growth have less certainty about how many new owners will be in the market by the holidays. None of this is catastrophic on its own, console software sales aren’t the subject of the Circana figures described here, but a slower-growing installed base is a headwind that publishers typically plan around well in advance, not react to mid-cycle.

It’s also pushing more attention toward alternatives that don’t require buying new hardware at all. Cloud gaming services, which stream games to existing devices rather than requiring a new console purchase, become relatively more attractive whenever console prices rise, a dynamic we’ve examined in our comparison of GeForce Now and Xbox Cloud Gaming.

Cloud Gaming as a Pressure Valve

Subscription cloud services won’t replace console hardware revenue outright, but they give publishers and platform holders a way to keep players engaged even if a chunk of the audience delays a hardware upgrade. Expect more marketing emphasis on streaming options this cycle, especially from companies that already operate both a console business and a cloud platform.

Competitive Comparison: How Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo Are Responding

All three companies are working from the same playbook so far: raise prices, point to component costs and tariffs, and avoid commenting on exact supply timelines. None has publicly detailed a plan specific to the memory shortage beyond the pricing response itself, based on the reporting available. Where the three differ is exposure. Microsoft’s 33% YTD unit decline is the steepest of the three, and it lands on a company that has spent recent years diversifying revenue toward Game Pass subscriptions and third-party publishing rather than hardware margin, giving it more room to absorb a weak console cycle than a pure hardware seller would have. Sony’s 25% decline is smaller in percentage terms but touches a company still heavily reliant on PlayStation hardware and software attach rates. Nintendo’s position is the least quantified in the current reporting, but its identity as the value option in the console market is most directly challenged by a shortage-driven price increase.

Company	Console(s) Named	Reported Action	Stated Reason
Sony	PS5 / PS5 Pro	Raised prices in 2026	Higher component costs; prior tariff impact
Microsoft	Xbox Series hardware	Raised prices in 2026	Higher component costs; prior tariff impact
Nintendo	Switch 2	Raised prices in 2026	Higher component costs; prior tariff impact

Expert Voices: Circana’s Read on the Market

Piscatella’s clearest statement on cause and effect came straight from the Yahoo Finance report: “We are seeing the negative impact of those higher price points on the consoles. We’re seeing a reduction in unit sales, driven by those higher prices.” That’s about as direct a line as an industry analyst draws between a specific business decision, raising prices, and a measurable market outcome, fewer units sold.

He went further in comments picked up by Eurogamer, describing the broader state of the market in stark terms: “The US hardware market has not been in a more precarious position since the early 80s.” Invoking the early 1980s is notable because that period is widely remembered in gaming history as the video game market crash of 1983, a collapse driven by oversupply and quality problems rather than component costs. Piscatella isn’t necessarily drawing a direct parallel to the causes of that crash, but the comparison underscores how unusual he considers the current environment to be.

What’s Next: Five Predictions for the Console Market

Holiday pricing stays firm. With component costs reportedly still elevated, deep console discounting this holiday season looks less likely than in past years, even with softer demand.
Bundles replace price cuts. Expect manufacturers and retailers to lean on game bundles and accessory packages rather than direct price reductions to drive holiday sales.
Services revenue gets more emphasis. Companies with strong subscription businesses, most notably Microsoft with Game Pass, are likely to spotlight services growth even more heavily if hardware numbers stay weak.
Spotty availability becomes a recurring story. If Piscatella’s early read on component-driven unavailability holds, expect more reports of specific SKUs or configurations going in and out of stock through early 2027.
Pressure builds on next-gen timing speculation. A prolonged slump historically shifts public attention toward when the next hardware generation might arrive, even without any confirmed announcement from Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo.

What This Means for Shoppers Right Now

For anyone shopping for a console this year, the practical takeaway is that prices are unlikely to come down in the near term, and availability of specific models could get patchier before it gets better. That’s a different calculus than past years, when waiting for a holiday sale was close to a guaranteed way to save money. Shoppers weighing a new PS5 Pro, Xbox console, or Switch 2 against alternatives like a gaming handheld should also factor in that the same memory and storage shortage pressuring console prices has pushed up pricing across the handheld market too, a trend detailed in our breakdown of the Steam Deck’s price increase against competing handhelds.

None of this means the console market is shrinking permanently. It means the near-term math has changed: the same dollar buys less certainty about price stability or stock availability than it did in prior console generations, and that shift is now showing up directly in Circana’s sales tracking.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are video game console sales down in 2026?
Circana data reported by Yahoo Finance shows August 2026 U.S. hardware unit sales down 15% year over year, the weakest August in 13 years, driven by a combination of higher console prices and a global memory and storage component shortage.

Which console has seen the biggest sales decline?
Based on Circana figures shared by analyst Mat Piscatella, Xbox hardware unit sales are down 33% year to date through August 2026, an all-time low for the platform. PlayStation hardware units are down 25% over the same period, its weakest stretch since 2013.

Did Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo all raise console prices?
Yes. Reports describe all three companies raising prices on their respective consoles in 2026, citing higher component costs and the earlier impact of tariffs. Specific dollar amounts for each increase were not detailed in the available reporting.

What is causing the memory and storage shortage?
Reports point to tight global supply of DRAM (working memory) and NAND flash (storage), components used across consoles, PCs, phones, and other electronics. Industry discussion has connected this to competing demand from AI data center infrastructure, though that specific causal link was not fully confirmed in the hardware sales reporting itself.

Is the PS5 Pro affected by the shortage?
The PS5 Pro was specifically named in the Yahoo Finance report on the hardware sales decline, placing it among the console products affected by the broader pricing and component environment described in the Circana data.

Will console prices go back down?
There’s no confirmed timeline in current reporting for prices to fall. Circana’s analyst noted that some products are already showing spotty availability, which typically signals continued tight supply rather than an imminent price correction.

Is this the worst the console market has ever been?
Mat Piscatella of Circana described the current U.S. hardware market as not having been in a more precarious position since the early 1980s, according to Eurogamer’s reporting, making 2026 one of the most severe hardware slumps on record by his assessment.

Should I buy a console now or wait?
That depends on individual needs, but shoppers should not assume holiday discounting will follow historical patterns this year, given that manufacturers are citing ongoing component cost pressure rather than temporary launch-related pricing.