[Windows Central] No, it's not just Xbox - ALL video game console sales are massively down year-over-year

RetroGamingUK said:
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November Estimates

PS5: 730K
NSW2: 480K
XBS: 120K
NSW: 75K

Yeah think Sony are fine
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If those are the actual numbers behind the downward percentages than it seems people are making a much bigger deal over the declines than warranted.

Maybe they should just celebrate that if outsold switch 1 than pretend the entire industry is in trouble.
 
Console sales are like boobs they start small and get bigger PS5 are big and even if there drooping lower down than last year at least there not like Xbox Series small saggy tits that have stunted growth.
 
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dragonyeuw said:
I mean, we all know this was inevitable right? Just existing nowadays is expensive as fuck. At some point you were going to price people out of being able to afford the non-essentials and yes, gaming qualifies under that category. You gonna eat, or you gonna buy the next Call of Duty? Rent, or a Switch 2/PS5/Xbox? Not that hard to figure out when we're being squeezed from all sides.
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Agreed. I was blessed enough to have a coworker just this past week who had a disc-based PS5 that he never played(about 5 hours max) he got in 2022 on hype but it's just not for him. Said he was thinking of selling.

He asked $280 for it, one controller, one game and a charging dock and I jumped on it.

Mint condition so now I've gotta figure out the best way to surprise my wife with it.

But my point is while that's a steal, it's extraordinarily difficult for a LOT of people to justify $500+ on a console in this economy right now. I'd been wanting to get one for her this year, but the cost of living is just stupid.

Every time someone turns around, power goes up. Insurance goes up. Property taxes go up. Streaming goes up. Water bill goes up.

All up but wage gains which haven't increased enough to offset all the inflation prior to now, which is why despite inflation rate being lower, we feel it even more.
 
Maybe cause gamers became real investors into the hobby. Cause historically, many publishers have built their fortune from untouched ceiled copies and I'm afraid this wouldn't work for them again.
 
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Unknown? said:
Banned? Nah... But it's not real journalism, just reposting what someone else already said. They could have looked into it to see that last year launched new hardware as well as why Xbox dropped so hard(price).
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???

All the mainstream websites do the same all the time, they all cite and report Circana's report, if Circana's report doesn't mention any perceived drop off from Pro, why would these websites bother to do that?

www.gamespot.com

Hardware Sales In The US Just Had Worst Month In 30 Years

The total number of units sold in November 2025 was the lowest since 1995.
www.gamespot.com www.gamespot.com

www.theverge.com

Video game hardware sales had a historically bad November in the US

Call of Duty sold less than last year, too.
www.theverge.com www.theverge.com

www.ign.com

Video Game Physical Software and Hardware Sales Just Had the Worst November in the U.S. Since 1995 - IGN

Last month, November, was a shockingly terrible month for video game sales in the U.S. While we traditionally think of November as a huge sales month what with Black Friday and all, November 2025 was the worst November in video game hardware unit sales, and the worst in physical software dollar...
www.ign.com www.ign.com



Let's be honest, RetroGamingUK RetroGamingUK is bothered and calling for it to be a banned source because it's windows central, the arch nemesis of many on GAF, there's absolutely nothing wrong with their reporting here 🤷‍♂️
 
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kasrkinsquad said:
The market has chosen PC gaming, nothing Nintendo and Sony can do about that.
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Some have, but the entire market? Nah. More likely folks are just sticking with whatever they have rather because they don't see a compelling reason to upgrade. Still a lot of PS4s out there.
 
Punished Miku said:
Argument #1 is that these are broad trends. Xbox is affected first because they're in last place, but it's coming for all consoles. Declines in interest in younger generations, spiking hardware costs upending the traditional subsidization model, economic downturn.
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This takes me back to 2012, back when the WII-U was dying and what was the Nintendo fanboys argument? "It must be that the gaming industry is truly dead now, it's only affecting the Wii-U at the moment because it's the one that launched first, meaning the PS4 is trully DOA"

Fast forward a gen and the PS4 was a return to form and it sold a lot, besides getting legendary status as a must have console

Fast forward another gen and we're back to this same dumb logic but with some minor adjustments: "It must be that the gaming industry is truly dead, but for real now, it's only affecting the Series S/X more because it was selling less from the start! but the Switch 2 is trully DOA and the PS5 will stop selling forever"

I can understand a "PS5 saturation", it's a console with most of its games shared between cross-gen and timed-exclusives, so it doesn't have the same pull as the PS4, but the S2? Just because Nintendo didn't bother doing deals during this time of the year, doesn't mean it's losing momentum or anything of the like, so idk why I'm seeing this rhetoric going on currently
 
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kasrkinsquad said:
The market has chosen PC gaming, nothing Nintendo and Sony can do about that.
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Loooooool... PC gaming will collapse in the next 4 yrs because of the RAM scarcity. Everybody is cutting production of parts which will hike costs to levels completely unheard of. And it won't be a short-term temporary thing like the Crypto boom and bust was. AI is here to stay.
 
TheThreadsThatBindUs said:
Loooooool... PC gaming will collapse in the next 4 yrs because of the RAM scarcity. Everybody is cutting production of parts which will hike costs to levels completely unheard of. And it won't be a short-term temporary thing like the Crypto boom and bust was. AI is here to stay.
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And consoles don't source parts from these same manufacturers?
 
Well when the cost of goods and services increase the ability for people to go buy a recreational hobby is diminished.
 
memoryman3 said:
And consoles don't source parts from these same manufacturers?
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Consoles order massively larger volumes and will typically have supply contracts that cover parts supply well into the future.

So consoles will be insulated to some extent in the short-term, but sure eventually they will be affected. That said, consoles don't use nor need as much RAM as PC, because they're a fixed platform and can get away with system-level optimizations to reduce RAM usage; e.g. increased on-die caches, shared memory pool between GPU and CPU, etc etc.
 
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Topher said:
Some have, but the entire market? Nah. More likely folks are just sticking with whatever they have rather because they don't see a compelling reason to upgrade. Still a lot of PS4s out there.
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Steam's userbase has doubled since Covid. Kids now a days start off gaming on hand me down smartphones and if they want more they get a PC. The new blood coming into the traditional gaming market are coming in via PC gaming.

Monster Hunter Wilds and Battlefield 6 sold most of their copies on PC.
 
kasrkinsquad said:
Steam's userbase has doubled since Covid. Kids now a days start off gaming on hand me down smartphones and if they want more they get a PC. The new blood coming into the traditional gaming market are coming in via PC gaming.

Monster Hunter Wilds and Battlefield 6 sold most of their copies on PC.
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That's fine, but I just don't see evidence that Steams growth is primarily due to those exiting the console market. I'd point to the addition of China more than anything else since covid.
 
EN250 said:
This takes me back to 2012, back when the WII-U was dying and what was the Nintendo fanboys argument? "It must be that the gaming industry is truly dead now, it's only affecting the Wii-U at the moment because it's the one that launched first, meaning the PS4 is trully DOA"

Fast forward a gen and the PS4 was a return to form and it sold a lot, besides getting legendary status as a must have console

Fast forward another gen and we're back to this same dumb logic but with some minor adjustments: "It must be that the gaming industry is truly dead, but for real now, it's only affecting the Series S/X more because it was selling less from the start! but the Switch 2 is trully DOA and the PS5 will stop selling forever"

I can understand a "PS5 saturation", it's a console with most of its games shared between cross-gen and timed-exclusives, so it doesn't have the same pull as the PS4, but the S2? Just because Nintendo didn't bother doing deals during this time of the year, doesn't mean it's losing momentum or anything of the like, so idk why I'm seeing this rhetoric going on currently
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Up until now the narrative around Switch 2 was that it's outpacing the Switch. Now it had a worse first November compared to Switch 1 (by a pretty significant margin).

Does that mean Nintendo is doomed or that S2 is DOA? No. Does that mean it's losing momentum? I mean… if it went from outselling S1 launch aligned to underselling it, what else would you call that? Guess we'll see if this is the new trajectory going forward or if it's just a fluke, but I certainly wouldn't call it a good sign.
 
TheThreadsThatBindUs said:
Consoles order massively larger volumes and will typically have supply contracts that cover parts supply well into the future.

So consoles will be insulated to some extent in the short-term, but sure eventually they will be affected. That said, consoles don't use nor need as much RAM as PC, because they're a fixed platform and can get away with system-level optimizations to reduce RAM usage; e.g. increased on-die caches, shared memory pool between GPU and CPU, etc etc.
Click to expand...

Still, how much are we going to think a PS6 with 24GB of high speed memory and a die size comparable to PS5 Pro will cost? Certainly not less than $600 and possibly up to $800. Who aside from the most diehard fans would purchase it? The threat to Sony would be people sticking to PS5 or the high income earners moving to PC - where you could justify a purchase for purposes other than gaming.
 
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Given the current state of global economy and the poor outlook in the foreseeable future, I wouldn't be surprised at all that people are cutting their spendings on console gaming. AAA fatigue has kicked in for many, and the fact that games are getting more and more expensive does not help much either. Besides, we are reaching the end of Gen 9 yet there still hasn't been any sign of major console price drops: M$ is actually raising the prices; if the AI bubble continues to grow Sony will be forced to re-evaluate their pricing strategy as well due to RAM/chip shortages. The future is really grim TBH.
 
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