PS5 Sales Plummet To Xbox Levels In The UK Following Price Increase

PlayStation upped the price of the PS5 worldwide earlier this year. It was only a matter of time before that had a detrimental effect on how many of PlayStation's consoles are being bought, as demonstrated by the sharp downturn in PS5 sales in the UK last month.

The price of the PS5 went up on April 2, 2026. As people rushed to buy the console for its lower price before it went up, PlayStation hardware sales spiked. That means, even though it was just one day, April PS5 sales weren't truly reflective of the damage that has been dealt by PlayStation making its latest console significantly more expensive now than when it launched more than five years ago.

PS5 Sales Were Halved In The UK Last Month

We now have May's sales to go on, courtesy of The Game Business, and it doesn't make for good reading for PlayStation. In the UK, PS5 sales dropped by 50 percent. That's compared to April, which, again, while there would have been a sales spike on April 1, there were likely very few people picking up the console for the remaining 29 days of the month.

Exact sales numbers haven't been shared, but to paint a slightly more detailed picture of just how poorly the PS5 sold in the UK during May, it only just managed to beat the Xbox Series X|S. There were just 400 more PS5s sold in the UK last month than Xbox consoles. That's thanks to a combination of the now very pricey PS5, but also people picking up an Xbox because they wanted to be among the first to play Forza Horizon 6.

Turns out holding off on Forza's PS5 release might have been a good idea after all.

The Switch 2 Continues To Sell Well, For Now

The Nintendo Switch 2 was far and away the best-selling console in the UK last month. There are a few reasons for that. For starters, it's the cheapest by quite some distance. It currently costs almost twice as much to buy a PS5 Pro in the UK as it does to buy a Switch 2.

The driving force behind Switch 2 sales right now, though, is the same one that caused the PS5 sales spike at the end of March. Nintendo has announced that it, too, cannot avoid passing on the detrimental effects of the rising cost of RAM to its consumers. As of September 1, 2026, the Switch 2 will cost more than it does now, hence why sales are likely higher than expected as people buy the console before its price goes up.

Even though PS5 sales have plummeted, there are almost certainly no plans to drop the price anytime soon. For starters, the RAM shortage is almost certainly only going to get worse. PlayStation will be hoping a lot of people cave to the new prices this November, too, as even though it's also launching on Xbox, the PS5 will almost certainly be where the majority of people plan on playing GTA 6. A lot of people who don't already own a current-gen console will buy one for that game alone, no matter the cost.

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