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

RetroGamingUK said:
WkQdITIV8jTynWZP.jpeg


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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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?
 
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.
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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.
 
The effect of the consoles' increasing in price is definitely starting to kick in, a 30-year low stings. MS obviously shifted priorities with the release of the first-party PS ports; the rumors of them transitioning Xbox into a brand of PCs (rumors they haven't shot down) aren't going to help sales either. The series consoles are still great machines; it's too bad that they didn't get price reductions as the generation went along. I still love my XSX even though I've mostly been playing on PC since I upgraded.
 
Pipoqueiro said:
I don't think this will be Sony's last generation, but the next one will be complicated for them to maintain sales numbers, with a new generation that is much more tuned into mobile phones and PCs

I have a resistance to PC because I've ALWAYS played on consoles, and even so, Steam's aggressive sales are slowly making me migrate to it.
Besides the infinite backward compatibility and emulators.
And not having to pay to use my own internet.
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The thing is, if PC gaming, as popular as it is currently with gamers, becomes "mainstream", then they will find a way to charge us to be able to play online. I think cloud is one way they are trying to achieve that, because the cost be can built in to the subscription and they can raise it or lower it as they please.
 
Kacho said:
PC gaming is mainstream.

Baseless conjecture.
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It's not. It is popular among people who have been gaming, people who like to build their PC's for gaming. It is popular, which I am not denying, but it is not mainstream. By mainstream, I simply mean, it will become the default for everyone. It ain't mainstream as long as there are consoles. :D

EDIT
And no, not baseless. The push to cloud is because they want more control over how we access content.
 
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sainraja said:
It's not. It is popular among people who have been gaming, people who like to build their PC's for gaming. It is popular, but not mainstream. By mainstream, I simply mean, it will become the default for everyone. It ain't mainstream as long as there are consoles. :D
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So just console warrior gobbledygook. Got it.
 
sainraja said:
It's not. It is popular among people who have been gaming, people who like to build their PC's for gaming. It is popular, which I am not denying, but it is not mainstream. By mainstream, I simply mean, it will become the default for everyone. It ain't mainstream as long as there are consoles. :D

EDIT
And no, not baseless. The push to cloud is because they want more control over how we access content.
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Ask kids that play Fortnite, Minecraft etc.

They want pc or console?
 
Console sales are on-going, why are we talling up sales now? We're talking about post covid sales, that's upsetting sales, 2025 and the chip shortage, and we're still waiting for meaningful exclusives (Gears E-Day, Naughty Dog, Mario Odyssey 2 etc.)
 
Kacho said:
So just console warrior gobbledygook. Got it.
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No, unless you think all casuals are gaming on PC's now lol. Cloud is convenience but it is also control. If they are successful in getting people to embrace cloud, the way that they want, then there will be no more consoles, period. Just sticks that you can plug into your TV and PCs. The PC audience will be more of a challenge but the goal is to move us away from consoles.

vaibhavpisal said:
Ask kids that play Fortnite, Minecraft etc.

They want pc or console?
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Kids aren't playing Fortnite/Minecraft on consoles?
 
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sainraja said:
It's not. It is popular among people who have been gaming, people who like to build their PC's for gaming. It is popular, which I am not denying, but it is not mainstream. By mainstream, I simply mean, it will become the default for everyone. It ain't mainstream as long as there are consoles. :D

EDIT
And no, not baseless. The push to cloud is because they want more control over how we access content.
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I don't see how PC gaming isn't considered mainstream. Folks don't have to go to specialized store to buy a gaming PC or laptop. They can go to just about any place they would buy a console to get one. Vast majority of games on PS5 are on PC. If you mean "default" as in most people are going to opt for a console for gaming then that may or may not be the case but that doesn't kick PC out of the mainstream gaming market.
 
Topher said:
I don't see how PC gaming isn't considered mainstream. Folks don't have to go to specialized store to buy a gaming PC or laptop. They can go to just about any place they would buy a console to get one. Vast majority of games on PS5 are on PC. If you mean "default" as in most people are going to opt for a console for gaming then that may or may not be the case but that doesn't kick PC out of the mainstream gaming market.
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Perhaps "mainstream" was the wrong word to use. I am not trying to downplay PC gaming or attacking it so I don't understand why people are getting defensive about it.

I realize that in certain markets there is no console, and nowadays there isn't even a PC, it's just whatever mobile device they have. That is what they play games on (pricing, availability, etc are factors). Their selection of games are limited, of course. Anyway, I am mostly speaking of people in countries like USA, where people can afford luxury items like consoles/build gaming PC rigs. The "casual" factor, people that are casual gamers, who are not that serious about games, but do pick up a controller every now and then; they are more likely to opt for console gaming over building a gaming PC.

Has PC gaming really become that flexible where someone can just walk in to a Best Buy and grab any machine and expect to be able to play the latest COD?

EDIT
I am mostly a console gamer because I don't like dealing with issues that I've run into on PC. I mostly play RTS games on PC and I bought a pre-built gaming PC. I know it is going to struggle playing the latest games and I am mostly okay with that since I wanted it for Warcraft 3. But I don't think you can just buy any PC machine and think it will play the latest games without any trouble.

EDIT
Hell, I've had games crash on me that weren't even that physically demanding. 🤷‍♂️
 
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sainraja said:
Perhaps "mainstream" was the wrong word to use. I am not trying to downplay PC gaming or attacking it so I don't understand why people are getting defensive about it.

I realize that in certain markets there is no console, and nowadays there isn't even a PC, it's just whatever mobile device they have. That is what they play games on (pricing, availability, etc are factors). Their selection of games are limited, of course. Anyway, I am mostly speaking of people in countries like USA, where people can afford luxury items like consoles/build gaming PC rigs. The "casual" factor, people that are casual gamers, who are not that serious about games, but do pick up a controller every now and then; they are more likely to opt for console gaming over building a gaming PC.

Has PC gaming really become that flexible where someone can just walk in to a Best Buy and grab any machine and expect to be able to play the latest COD?

EDIT
I am mostly a console gamer because I don't like dealing with issues that I've run into PC. I mostly play RTS games and I bought a pre-built gaming PC but I know it is going to struggle playing the latest games.
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Not being defensive. I do think mainstream is the wrong word, however. Casual players are typically certainly going to opt for consoles as the more plug and play, easier experience. I don't think you would have received as much pushback with that characterization. So yeah, all good. Just some semantical stuff.
 
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