- November saw a decline in appetite for gaming hardware sales.
- Xbox was the hardest hit, with a sharp drop of 70% year over year.
- The cause is likely the company’s price increase, among other factors.
This year, particularly November and its various year-end sales events like Black Friday, has not been good for gaming hardware sales.
While the Nintendo Switch 2 has been very successful in its first six months on the market, the same can’t be said for other console manufacturers. Speaking to IGN, Circana senior director and industry analyst Mat Piscatella revealed that PS5 sales were down 40% year-over-year. This despite steep discounts for PlayStation hardware last month.
Even Nintendo suffered slightly, with combined sales of the Switch 2 and original Switch falling 10% from last year’s Switch performance. Although it was Microsoft’s Xbox line that fell the hardest, falling by a frankly staggering 70% year over year.
There are some clear reasons for this drop. While all the major console manufacturers have applied price increases to their hardware, Microsoft was particularly aggressive. In May, the price of the Xbox Series X|S skyrocketed by $100 in the United States. A few months later, in September, another price increase came to consoles.
The worst offenders are the Xbox Series Yes, that’s $100 more expensive than a PS5 Pro.
When you factor in these price increases with Xbox’s cross-platform strategy, meaning you can essentially get its games and services on other platforms, it’s easy to see why consumers would have little appetite for Microsoft products.
Of course, there is also the current global cost of living crisis to take into account. In a world where basic necessities are becoming more expensive at an alarming rate, it’s especially difficult to justify spending up to $800 on a half-decade-old gaming console.
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