PS5 and Xbox Series X|S hit historic sales lows in May as price hikes bite

May 2026 was a brutal month for PlayStation and Xbox hardware, with both platforms posting their worst May unit sales figures on record. Circana's monthly U.S. market data, shared by Senior Director Mat Piscatella, lays the blame squarely on a year of aggressive price increases finally catching up with consumers.

PS5 unit sales dropped 58% year-over-year in May, the lowest PlayStation unit sales for that month since May 2000 — when the original PlayStation was Sony's only console on the market. Spending on PS5 fell 43% over the same period. Xbox Series X|S fared somewhat better on paper but still recorded its worst-ever May unit sales, down 12% year-over-year. The twist: Xbox hardware spending actually grew 7% despite the unit drop, because each console sold for more. The average Xbox Series price hit $524, up 22% from last year. PS5's average price climbed even steeper, up 33% to $672. Across all hardware, the average price paid for a new console reached $502 in May — up 14% from $440 a year ago. Asked whether the revenue-over-volume dynamic meant price hikes were "working" for Xbox, Piscatella was blunt: "Xbox also recorded its lowest May hardware unit sales ever. So, I guess we could call the results, uh, mixed?"

The contrast with Nintendo is stark. The Switch 2 was the best-selling platform in both units and dollar sales in May, and remains the top-selling console year-to-date with 5.9 million units sold in the U.S. — making it the second-fastest-selling gaming hardware in U.S. history, behind only the Game Boy Advance's 6.5 million in its first year. The Switch 2's strong performance helped push overall hardware spending up 37–38% year-over-year, masking just how badly Sony and Microsoft are struggling. Notably, Nintendo's price increase on the Switch 2 doesn't kick in until September 1, so the console has been somewhat insulated from the broader pricing pressure that's hammering its competitors.

Looking ahead, Piscatella warned on Bluesky that May will be "the last month with HW growth for a while," calling the combination of pricing pressure and the Switch 2's upcoming year-one comparison "a nasty combo." June will be the first month where Switch 2 sales are measured against its own launch-window numbers, which could make the overall hardware picture look considerably grimmer across the board.