PlayStation and Xbox record their worst May in decades after recent price increases

The console sales numbers for May are in, and they're bad. Market research firm Circana has published its US video game hardware data for May 2026, and the console market just had one of its worst months in living memory. Xbox hardware unit sales in May 2026 were the lowest ever recorded for any May month. PlayStation didn't do much better, posting its worst May unit sales since 2000. That's not a typo; we're talking pre-PS2 territory for Sony.

The culprit, to no one's surprise, is the usual suspect: memory shortage. The average price paid for new video game hardware hit $502 in May, up 14% from $440 a year ago. The average PS5 was selling for $672, a 33% jump year-on-year, while the average Xbox Series unit sat at $524, up 22%. Those aren't small jumps either.

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Sony took by far the worst of it. PlayStation spending dropped 43% year-on-year, with unit sales collapsing 58%. That's a freefall if I've ever seen one. When a PS5 disc edition costs $650, and the PS5 Pro has ballooned to $900, people start holding on to their wallets.

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The strange part is that revenue tells a different story. Despite selling 12% fewer Xbox consoles, Xbox hardware spending was still up 7% year-on-year. Selling fewer units but pulling in more money per sale is the new math of the memory crisis era. Overall hardware spending rose 38% in May, hitting $249 million, driven largely by the Switch 2 propping up the category.

Higher prices are keeping company balance sheets looking acceptable, even as units shipped continue to drop. That gap between revenue and volume is what makes this crisis so tricky to fix: manufacturers have little incentive to advocate for cheaper components when elevated prices are, at least on paper, still moving the needle.

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Nintendo is the one bright spot, and it only stays bright until September. The Switch 2 closed its first year on the market with approximately 5.9 million units sold in the US. Without it, May's report would have been a disaster across the board. That said, Nintendo's own $50 price hike kicks in September 1, and the company is already forecasting weaker second-year sales. The memory crisis doth not discriminate.

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Circana analyst Mat Piscatella warned that May 2026 may mark the last annual increase in hardware spending for some time, as further price hikes could suppress demand heading into the holiday season. With Xbox announcing yet another round of increases starting August 1, and Microsoft warning that costs could double again by fall 2027, there's no obvious floor.