The PlayStation 5 was the dominant platform of 2025, as the latest console hardware sales numbers came around, largely surpassing Microsoft’s Xbox Series duo and Nintendo’s new Switch 2. But trust us when we tell you: this is not the way Sony wanted it to be.
That’s because, despite beating its competition on pretty much every front, the PS5 saw double-digit drops on its overall numbers. The only conclusion to be drawn here is: while Sony did lose less, everybody lost. And this trend of losing will likely be around for 2026 as well.
Breaking down the numbers: in the United States alone, general spending in November—typically the height of the shopping season—fell by 27% compared to the previous year, as executives from major companies have started to distance themselves from traditional, sale-by-sale competition.
Here’s a crude crunch for the latest detailed information available:
Console hardware sales performance by platform
- PlayStation 5 (PS5): Sony’s flagship reached a massive lifetime milestone of 84.2 million units, officially surpassing the lifetime sales of the Xbox 360.
However, the platform is not immune to the market’s downturn; annual PlayStation 5 sales dropped 19% in 2025 compared to 2024, with festive season sales plummeting by 40%.
- Xbox Series X/S: Microsoft’s current generation saw a “substantial collapse” in sales.
Globally, Xbox sales numbers were down by over 40% in 2025, while the festive period saw a staggering 70% decline. In the UK, which was once an Xbox stronghold, sales hit an all-time low, down 39% for the year.
- Nintendo Switch 2 / Switch: While nobody in their right mind would expect Nintendo to overcome its competitors (considering the Switch 2 came out five years after the PS5 and Xbox Series S|X), Nintendo was the only manufacturer to report rising console sales for 2025, bolstered by the launch of the Switch 2
Despite this, even Nintendo felt the festive chill, with combined Switch and Switch 2 sales down 10% compared to the 2024 holiday period.
It will get worse before it gets better (and AI is the probable culprit)
While gamers are looking toward 2026 with hope for heavyweight releases like GTA 6 and Marvel’s Wolverine, the gaming industry’s console hardware sales part is facing a potential catastrophe. The primary culprit is the global explosion of AI, which has driven up the demand and price for RAM modules by several hundred percent in recent months.
This situation is already showing how it can be problematic in short, mid and long run: even Amazon’s discount session for RAM chips lists prices that, six to nine months ago, would be akin to new releases, leading us to think that the prices that were supposed to go down with time but didn’t are an ill omen of what’s to come — if the no-longer-new stuff is priced like new stuff used to be, then when the new stuff comes around, the price for new stuff will be much, much higher.
And that’s all for one component that entails the development of every single platform out there: be it Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo or good ole PC, everybody needs memory chips, but also processing units, GPU cards, storage capabilities and so on and so forth.
Not to mention games’ individual prices: while even major releases like Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 came out with a $69.99 tag, development costs are higher than ever, and billionaire budgets do not always translate to major sales. In other words: publishers will want to see that investment back somehow — be it ludicrous microtransactions or an actual price hike.
This shortage leaves console manufacturers in a “very tricky spot”: high-level talks are already occurring regarding RAM availability and its impact on mass production which, as a result, could bring the 2026 industry to an even bigger deceleration — if not a screeching halt:
- Current-Gen Price Hikes: Rather than the traditional price drops seen late in a console’s lifecycle, the gaming industry is bracing for yet more price increases for current hardware in 2026 to offset manufacturing costs.
- Extortionate Next-Gen Pricing: Sources indicate that the next generation of consoles (PS6 and the next Xbox) were already expected to be more expensive, but the RAM bottleneck could make their launch prices “extortionate”.
- Release Delays: There is active debate among manufacturers about delaying the next generation of consoles beyond their intended 2027–2028 release window.
The hope is that by waiting, RAM infrastructure will expand enough for prices to eventually drop to a competitive level
In short, while 2025 was a record-breaking low for sales, 2026 may be defined by a different kind of struggle: the battle to keep hardware affordable and available in an AI-dominated world
