Gamers were shocked a few months ago when the news broke that Xbox Series X/S sales had hit rock bottom. We’re talking an all-time low, with just 2.7 million units sold in the US during 2024. It was the worst full-year performance ever for Xbox.

Sony wasn’t immune from bad news either. Between April and June 2024, PS5 sales dipped 27%, selling 2.4 million units. While not as bad as Xbox, these numbers still aren’t great. And it’s indicative of a major problem the Console Sales market is facing.

Here’s a closer look.

What Happened to the 9th Generation?

The 9th generation of consoles was supposed to be huge.

When the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S both dropped at the end of 2020, expectations were insanely high. The COVID-19 pandemic was still raging, people were stuck at home, and they needed something to pick them up. Here came the 9th generation to save the day.

The launch of both consoles sort of fell flat, though, as there were some serious global supply chain issues going on at the time. This meant the majority of Sony and Xbox users simply couldn’t get their hands on a new console — even the ones who were staying up until midnight every day hitting the refresh button on retailer sites (you’ll probably remember this was a social media trend for months).

They just weren’t available in-store or online. The only option was to buy extremely overpriced consoles from scalpers on eBay, but most gamers simply weren’t willing to do it. And unfortunately, all of this meant that the 9th generation never got off the ground the way it was intended to.

Fast forward almost five years later and we now have a weird mixture of the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and the Nintendo Switch. The general expectation was that everyone would quickly migrate over to the 9th generation following its launch in 2020, but it just never happened, leading to this bizarre place where today’s gamers are now awkwardly spread across consoles from different generations.

Also:

Even if the 9th generation had got off to a good start, though, it doesn’t necessarily mean it would have been a success. After all, both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S have failed to impress in almost every regard over the past half-decade. We’ve seen no groundbreaking games, extremely long waits between releases, the takeover of pay-to-win live games, and developers becoming over reliant on old IPs, remasters, and remakes. It’s not been a pretty sight.

Not to mention, it’s somehow become acceptable for unfinished games to be released. From buggy gameplay to unfinished storylines, you just never know what you’re going to get anymore, which is especially disheartening when you consider the fact that games prices have skyrocketed to $70 or higher on average. This was never the case with past generations.

Console Sales Projected to Bounce Back in 2026 — Although Nothing is Guaranteed

The 9th generation wasn’t a complete flop, but it did fall short of expectations. It’s officially entered the latter stages of its lifecycle, too, so there won’t be any last-minute comebacks. What we’re going to see is a continuous steady decline of Console sales and not much else.

There’s good news, though. Despite the recent plunge in console sales, Newzoo forecasts that the console market will indeed bounce back, achieving 7% growth over the next three years. This will mainly be driven by the release of the PlayStation 6 and Nintendo Switch 2, as well as the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6, which is widely expected to become the best-selling game of all time following 13 years of anticipation.

One thing for sure is that there’s a lot riding on the success of GTA 6. If Rockstar has cooked up another classic and releases it at an affordable price, it’s almost guaranteed to revive the console market, even if it’s only a short-term boost. This is why the people at Sony and Microsoft are counting down the days until its release, as GTA 6 will truly make or break the next decade for consoles.

Does Console Gaming Have a Future?

Whatever happens with GTA 6, there’s still a much larger question at hand regarding the long-term future of consoles as a platform for gaming.

Already, we’ve seen a huge shift away from traditional gaming and typical consumer behaviour. Less than a decade ago, nobody was playing online casino games. Today, though, they are. Sweepstake Casinos listed all the sweeps casino operators and many of these sites now have well over 1 million users, signalling how modern gamers are more focused on saving money and winning prizes rather than paying for overpriced AAA games.

Mobile gaming has also taken over in the process, with Android and iOS having become the most popular platforms to game on. Get this, too — the number of mobile gamers is set to reach 2.4 billion users by 2029 according to Statista, giving it an unimaginable level of power in the industry.

Let’s not forget that the PC has surpassed consoles, as well. PC games are officially outselling console games for the first time in history, and it looks like this trend is set to continue. Simply put, consoles don’t have the market pull they used to, especially in an age where people are looking for free-to-play games more than anything else.

So, with mobile and PC putting the squeeze on consoles, will the PlayStation and Xbox survive moving forward? It’s difficult to say, but the upcoming release of GTA 6 means consoles still have some life in them yet. However, don’t be surprised if it reaches a point where the industry is dominated by PC, mobile, and the Nintendo Switch, while traditional consoles take a backseat.

Video Games Are Too Expensive — and Prices Need to Drop

As predicted, if consoles are to bounce back in sales, they need to start by fixing the prices.

It’s the biggest complaint that gamers have had for years: video games are too expensive. Just this past week, popular YouTube channels like SomeOrdinaryGamers (“Video Games Are Dying Rapidly…”) and IGN (“Console Gaming is Too Damn Expensive, Something Has to Give”) have posted videos talking about this issue, drawing attention to the fact that if video games keep going up in price, the industry itself won’t last much longer. And nobody is disagreeing with them.

If you take a look at the average AAA game today, it will generally release at around $60 to $80. So, for anyone looking to buy five or more games in a year, you’re looking at anywhere above $400 just for new games, which is more expensive than the console itself. This also doesn’t account for DLC, add-ons, and subscription service prices. Gaming is far too expensive.

If PlayStation and Microsoft can figure out a way to make games affordable again — much like they were back in the mid-2010s — then everybody wins. Console sales will rise again and more gamers will start coming back. But until then, the exact opposite will keep happening: gamers are going to walk away in huge numbers.

Summary

It’s obvious for everyone to see. The next few years are going to be huge for PlayStation and Xbox consoles. We’re either going to see a much-needed revival — taking us back to the glory days of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One but this time with the 10th generation — or the continued decline of what was once an unstoppable market. A lot of it will ride on the success of Grand Theft Auto 6, but so much has to be done by the companies themselves. From fixing video game prices to making games fun again, there’s a long checklist that needs to be completed before it’s all too late.