Jul 2025 USA Sales: PS5 Hardware Tumbles 47% Year-Over-Year in Tough Month

Of course a brand new Console is going to sell higher then PS5/Xbox that's just how things go.

Looking likely that we might get those tony hawk underground remakes.

The consoles are all out since 2020 most people who want one would have one by now so sales will fall and that's exactly why Sony and Microsoft are talking and working on next gen right now!
Simples ✌️

I suspect sales will increase again during the month gta6 releases. Will be interesting to see the magnitude of the increase though.

Dang spiderman 2 still selling

PS5 and XBox Series are nearly 5 years old. Switch 2 is only about 3 months. Not exactly a surprise.

Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S had huge boosts in the same month last year, due to the College Football Game(‘Murica…).

That accounts for some of the steep drop this year.

Doesn’t help that they increased the price as well

How is GTA5 still on the top 10 🤣

I'd be interested in how the sales drop and overall sales compare with PS4 ,PS3, and PS2 and the same points in their respective life spans.

sony would prefer people don't buy their console at all rather than give customers a respectable price drop? i don't get it. sure, sony would lose a $100-150 dollars or so on each console sold if they drop the msrp to $380USD (base model with drive), but the tradeoff would be securing new customers into their ecosystem and getting a hefty return on software sales. isn't that the way they used to do business? heck, all it would take is a couple games purchased per customer and sony would offset the hardware loss and be in the green.

if sony doesn't want hardware sales to fall off a cliff, they need to subsidize the hardware cost to entice people to get onboard. time is ticking and people will especially avoid ps5 once rumblings of ps6 releasing in 2027 hits the mainstream. as for customers such as myself who used to be core a core playstation user... well, i still am, but on ps4 haha. sony failed to capture my interest this gen so that ship has sailed. i am willing to give them another shot with the ps6 but things are not looking good as things stand.

I'm surprised there's only one Nintendo game in the top 20. They usually got a couples like Zelda, Mario Kart, Smash, Pokemon, or something.

But cool to see DS 2 and even Spidey 2 are still selling.

B-b-but Hulst said unending growth! Why? Why!?

Cancer folks, cancer.

@Porco they’re doing this because they know they don’t have the games to sell the console on. That’s the problem, long development pipelines and ballooning budgets. Combined with chasing dying trends and a lack of innovation, you’re looking at a company not focused on making money so much as saving money. I have no intention of buying a ps6 at launch, and am reluctant to buy any games for the ps5 pro given how uncertain I am about the ecosystem itself. Why invest further in something that will be pricing people out worse than they are now, and not justifying the cost over quality?
I’ve talked to a lot of people about this and they feel similarly. Perhaps not as harshly as I do, but they’re holding back purchases because they don’t trust the brand nor the console itself.

@Porco I think Sony's aggressive pricing strategy will be GTA6 PS5 hardware bundles next year like $399 for PS5 digital edition + GTA6 download code for Days of Play.

@Coffeeglitch

they’re doing this because they know they don’t have the games to sell the console on. That’s the problem, long development pipelines and ballooning budgets. Combined with chasing dying trends and a lack of innovation, you’re looking at a company not focused on making money so much as saving money.

What a load of old codswallop. They literally just posted a $1b profit for their last quarterly earnings, which is a record for the division. They don’t need to sell consoles at a loss and hope to make the money back because the current player base is already making them lots of money. They’d rather make $1b a quarter and sell 100M consoles than make $950m a quarter but sell 120m consoles.

@Porco Losing $100-150 /unit is a lot. If Sony sold 20 million units /year then they gonna lost $2-3 Billion revenue. No company wants to lost that much in this economy, not even Microsoft.

@PuppetMaster would they prefer that ps5s are sitting in warehouses instead? at this stage of the ps5's cycle, they aren't going to sell more than 20m units over the next 3-5 years in all liklihood. as i said in my post, the revenue lost on hardware is more than made up for in software sales if they increase their userbase. in the business world, that is a very good tradeoff. heck, many companies give users things (i.e. mobile and productivity software) for free if that means they are given access to user data. i disagree completely with sony's strategy, or lack thereoff.

@Grumblevolcano it's a good prediction, although i believe the console should be marked down permanently at $380USD (optical drive) and $330USD (digital) to increase sony's userbase and software sales. with days of play, they could instead throw in a free game and keep the pricing of the hardware the same if they went this route. but yea, i think sony is banking on GTA to bail them out of their slumping hardware sales. there's no question about that.

@Coffeeglitch it's an interesting perspective. playstation and the AAA industry at large has certainly become boring and predictable. sony used to entice its core audience with its exclusives but that has all changed now with pc ports on top of its slow and disappointing output this generation. sony should be aware of this and doing a lot more to entice gamers to hop into their ecosystem and that begins with a proper price drop on the hardware. going in the opposite direction only works if they have a hot and highly desireable platform that is inelastic to price, but as time goes on, we are seeing the complete opposite of this trend.

"Oh, no! PS5 is dying, guys, consoles are dead, rip Sony and Playstation"

• Average PC elitist.

@Porco which is a shame because PlayStation generally has been the ideal choice for convenience from the couch. It’s weird to see them complacent, but then again Sony has never been humble when they’re in a strong position. It’s not like the console or brand is hurting but their weakness is in being stubborn and frustratingly slow to adapt to consumer spending. While it’s good to try new things, given how long games take to make it’s just a bad idea to chase trends since by the time a product releases that trend may be dead and buried.

I want the Song to be a strong firm when it comes to playstation because when they’re doing good (when it comes to sentiment, profits are a different ballgame) they’re generally the best around. Been a while since I’ve felt that way though.

@Porco That's not how it works. Bigger userbase doesn't mean software sales will be guarantee to increased a lot or even good enough to cover up $2-3 Billion loss from hardware units.

We're talking about each customer has different economy and buying habbit. Not everyone wants / capable to buy multiple games /year or wants to keeps spending their money around DLC, MTX, or subscription service.

There's plenty of people who bought a console and they're satisfy with just playing one or two games for a whole year. Heck, there's people who bought a console and they never buy a single game because they only playing F2P games.

And there's a period where software sales are down. At this economy with 70-80 bucks /game, more people will hold down on buying games especially at full price. If software sales are down then how Sony can cover up $100-150 loss /unit?

You can disagree with Sony strategy. But i bet they know more about this than whatever you suggest they should do.

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare very true, explains why they haven't put it on ps plus extra/premium

It will only get tougher for PlayStation now they have increased the price of ps5.

This chart does not look right to me. I find it hard to believe Mario Kart World is not in the top 20.

it’s annoying to see the same damn games in the top selling lists
i know i’m personally a big hermit and quite disconnnected from the casuals gamers but how come minecraft, rdr 2, gta 5 are still selling

my big guess is that many people get banned in these games and to keep feeding their need to keep playing those games online they make a new account, subscribe to ps plus again and buy a fresh new copy of those games
and this cycle repeats itself for them regularly

@PuppetMaster are you insinuating that the average playstation gamer will NOT spend a minimum of $150 over the lifetime of the ps5 console generation? that's an absurd take if you truly believe that. here is a source supporting that the average ps5 user spends over $700 within the first 4 years (data is from a sony presentation).

https://www.gamesradar.com/platforms/playstation/the-average-ps5-owner-spends-an-extra-dollar731-on-content-services-and-peripherals/

from ps+ essential alone, sony would make back its loss on the hardware (if an average customer subscribes for 2 years or more). also, for those who spend most of their time with F2P games, they would likely invest in various mtx and season passes, yet again, generating revenue for sony. and finally, the users who only play a couple games in an entire year, be it madden or COD etc., again, the purchase of 2 games in a single year over 3 years would generate more than $150 for sony (if sony keeps 30% of each sale, 100% if it is a 1st party sony published game).

all purchases from those customers thereafter would be gains for sony and erase the loss on the hardware generating healthy margins. in case you didn't know, this is how the business model used to work with consoles the first few years on the market. sony would keep the price as low as possible and take a loss on the initial sales for the first few years. then, as components got cheaper, sony would revise the SKUs and break even or turn a small profit before dropping the msrp even further to encourage more people to purchase the console. now, all we see are price increases which is counterproductive in growing the install base and generating revenue long term.

i don't think you have thought this through enough because your points aren't making much sense. also, to assume that large companies don't constantly make mistakes and often lack foresight is also a strange opinion to have. we see sony making blunders constantly, particularly with its live service games and cancellations.

@Coffeeglitch agreed. there have been too many skakeups within sony managament over the past 5 years and they have lost their way. when their loyal fans are losing interest, you know there is a problem.

right now, it is the mainstream users that are most enthusiastic about ps5, likely because they are younger and new to the brand. as they get older, they too will lose interest and the generation before them will stick to their mobile gaming and won't even think twice about buying a console. sony really should try to win back its core audience from the ps4 as most are either indifferent or moving away towards pc now.

the ps4 was sony as its peak as far as its 1st party output and generating excitement amongst the playstation community at large. they were also pro consumer and inviting. now the brand comes across as cold, boring, predictable and infused with greedy business practices above all else.

@Boxmonkey devils advocate, but this is also the first time a price hike is justified given Trump’s decision to tariff copper. It’s just worse because Sony has been repeatedly raising prices throughout the generation so the sentiment is unsympathetic.