Only 1.6 million hardware units were moved in November, the least sold in any November since Toy Story, Casino, and Goldeneye were in theaters. Total spending on hardware amounted to $695 million, the lowest since 2005 and a 27% drop from November 2024. Xbox was hit especially hard, with Xbox Series sales decreasing 70% year-over-year. The PlayStation 5 saw a 40% drop, and even Nintendo, whose Switch 2 came out in June, and had been outpacing the original Switch’s sales month-to-month, sold 10% less in November than the then-seven-year-old Switch did in November 2024—and that’s both the Switch and Switch 2 combined. The one bright spot was the NEX Playground, a $250 system focused on motion controlled games and party games, which sold more units in November than the Xbox.
A myriad of factors probably contributed to this very bad month, but as Circana video game analyst Mat Piscatella notes, the increasing cost of consoles probably has more than a little to do with it. Sony and Microsoft both raised prices on their flagship consoles this year, despite both the current PlayStation and Xbox coming out in 2020. Nintendo likewise raised the price on the original Switch, which came out in 2017, and has faced significant criticism over the cost of the Switch 2. Those increases are partially a response to complications caused by Trump’s tariffs and the rising price of memory chips.
Gaming—or, at least the kind of console-driven gaming that has historically been the industry’s primary focus—isn’t cheap. A PlayStation 5 retails for $549 ($499 if you don’t want a disc drive), with the more advanced PlayStation 5 Pro costing $749. The Xbox Series X sells for $599, while the digital-only Series S is $449. The Switch 2 is priced at $449, while the eight-year-old Switch still retails for $339 ($399 for the superior OLED model, or $229 for the handheld-only Switch Lite). Combine those exorbitant prices with the larger economic issues hitting America, and it’s no surprise that games spending is down. But a three-decade low is more unexpected bad news for an industry in turmoil.
