May was a catastrophic month for PlayStation and Xbox sales in the U.S., driven by price rises that have clearly had a significant impact on consumer interest in buying a new console.
Sony raised the price of PS5 consoles in April, bringing the cost of a standard PS5 to $649.99, the PS5 Digital Edition to $599.99, and the PS5 Pro to $899.99. Those price rises appear to have dented PS5 sales in the U.S. in May, when, according to new Circana data, PS5 spending fell 43% year-on-year, and unit sales plummeted 58%.
Xbox didn’t do much better. Surprisingly, Xbox Series hardware spending actually grew 7% versus a year ago, but unit sales fell by 12%. That’s the result of Xbox Series costing more in May versus the previous May (Microsoft increased the Xbox console price by $20-$70 in the U.S. last October).
Mat Piscatella, Senior Director, Video Games at Circana said PlayStation hardware unit sales fell to their lowest May total since May 2000, which seems pretty terrible for Sony. Meanwhile, Xbox hardware unit sales were the lowest ever recorded for a May month. Bad all round.
Hammering home the point that getting into console gaming has become more expensive, Circana said the average price paid for a new unit of video game hardware reached $502 in May, up 14% compared to a year ago ($440). May 2026 PS5 average pricing increased by 33% versus a year ago to $672, with Xbox Series up 22%, to $524. Traditionally, consoles get cheaper over the course of a generation, not more expensive.
Microsoft announced another Xbox Series price rise this week, although it doesn’t come into effect until August. I can’t imagine those September Xbox sales are going to be particularly healthy, if what’s happened in May is anything to go by.
The price rises are the direct result of the “RAMpocalypse,” which is an ongoing global memory shortage and price crisis driven by semiconductor manufacturers reallocating their DRAM and NAND production capacity to high-margin hardware for AI data centers.
“Last October, we increased Xbox console price by $20-$70 in the U.S.” Microsoft said when it announced Xbox price rises this week. “We hoped another price increase would not be necessary, and we have spent the last several months working with suppliers on options. Unfortunately, console storage and memory prices have increased by more than 2.5x and we expect another doubling by the fall of 2027.
“The entire consumer electronics industry is struggling with the current components crisis, but the effects are particularly hard on consoles. Unlike phones, computers, speakers, and other consumer devices, consoles are typically not sold at a profit, but instead for less than they cost to make.”
When Sony hiked the price of PS5, it blamed it on “continued pressures in the global economic landscape.” It’s a similar story for pretty much every hardware manufacturer around. Just look at Valve’s Steam Machine.
When will this console price pain end? No time soon, reports indicate. Microsoft expects another doubling of console storage and memory prices by the fall of 2027. Fingers crossed for 2028, then!
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
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