The console race, by the numbers: PS5 up 22 percent, Xbox at a record low, Switch 2 cooling, and every box now costs more than it did in spring

September, in Circana's numbers

Circana tracks US retail and most digital sales. Its analyst Mat Piscatella posted the September figures, covering the five weeks from August 30 to October 3, on October 22. (Piscatella on Bluesky, Kotaku)

• PS5: units up 22 percent from a year ago, dollars up 43 percent. Led the month in both. Sony's share of hardware dollars was its highest in any month since May 2025.
• Switch 2: units down 14 percent, dollars down 12 percent. Second place.
• Xbox Series: units down 27 percent, dollars down 2 percent. Third, and the lowest September for Xbox hardware on record, below the previous low set in September 2025.
• Everything together: hardware units down 3 percent, hardware dollars up 12 percent to $362 million. Total spending on games, hardware and accessories $4.8 billion, down 1 percent. Year to date, hardware dollars are down 9 percent.

Read that fourth line twice. Fewer consoles sold, more money spent. That's not demand, that's price. Circana's average price paid in September was about $646 for a PS5, $663 for an Xbox, up a third from a year ago, and $498 for a Switch 2.

The PS5's month had a name: Marvel's Wolverine, which was the best-selling game of September and, per Piscatella, had the biggest launch month for a Sony-published game since Helldivers 2 in February 2024. PS5 sales jumped more than 70 percent in the week it came out. He was clear that this was Wolverine, not Grand Theft Auto anticipation, and that he sees "no clear steady ramp toward GTA" yet. The rest of the top ten: NBA 2K27, EA Sports FC 27, Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, The Blood of Dawnwalker, Wardogs, Onimusha, Halloween: The Game, Ace Combat 8, Madden. (GamesBeat)

What each console costs now, and when it changed

The briefing I was sent said the Series X costs $649 "after price hikes." That was true until July 31. Here is the current list, because every one of these moved in 2026:

• Xbox Series X, $799.99. Series X Digital $749.99, Series S $499.99 and $599.99. Microsoft announced it June 25, effective August 1, blaming memory and storage costs that it said had risen more than two and a half times, and it discontinued the 2 TB model. That's the third US increase in fifteen months, after May and October of 2025. (Variety)
• PS5, $649.99. Digital $599.99, Pro $899.99. Sony raised them April 2, after a $50 bump in August 2025. PlayStation Direct lists all three as currently unavailable. (PlayStation Blog)
• Switch 2, $499.99 since September 1, from $449.99, the same memory-cost reason. Nintendo dropped the Mario Kart World bundle at the same time, so as Piscatella put it, "on shelf there wasn't a significant price change." (Nintendo)

So the most expensive console is the one selling the least, by a lot, and that's not a coincidence. An Xbox Series X costs $150 more than a PS5 and $300 more than a Switch 2 and plays most of the same third-party games. Microsoft's own quarterly report last week said Xbox hardware revenue fell 14 percent on "a lower volume of consoles sold," total Xbox revenue was down 2 percent, and it expects hardware to decline again over the holidays. Microsoft also told The Game Business that console sales "remain constrained by supply," which is a sentence I'd have believed in 2021. (The Game Business)

Piscatella's line on it was blunt: "It's really hard to find any signs of positivity or hope on that platform right now." Game Pass Ultimate is $22.99 a month, cut from $29.99 in April. Call of Duty leaving day-one Game Pass, in his telling, "lost a ton of engagement on Xbox" with no offsetting benefit. The next Xbox is a 2027 story with no date or price, and the handheld line now runs from the $599 ROG Xbox Ally to a $1,299 Ally X20 that went on sale October 15. Microsoft also stopped sharing US digital sales data with Circana in July, so some of its software numbers are now projections. Companies that are winning don't usually do that.

The Switch 2 "slowdown," honestly

You'll see headlines this week that the Switch 2 is "no longer the fastest-selling console in US history." That phrasing is from Christopher Dring at The Game Business, and it's true, but it dates from June, when Circana's twelve-month tally put the Switch 2 at 5.9 million US units against the Game Boy Advance's 6.5 million over the same window. Second-fastest ever is the accurate description. Piscatella's take on the September dip: "I'm not seeing anything to be concerned about in the Switch 2 numbers at all, and I'm sure it's going to pop with Zelda." The comparison is also strange because, in his words, "it's rare that such a successful device in its first year doesn't have supply constraints." Last September there were lines. This September there was stock. (The Game Business, ScreenRant)

The Zelda he means is the Ocarina of Time remake, out Thursday, November 5, Switch 2 only, $59.99 digital. The Zelda 40th anniversary Switch 2 launched October 29 at $519.99 with no game included, and Piscatella's prediction is that "on eBay you'll be able to find one for $4,000 if you want." November on Switch 2 also brings Stellar Blade and Guardians of the Galaxy the same day, Metaphor: ReFantazio and the Pikmin 4 Switch 2 Edition on the 12th, and Binding of Isaac on the 19th.

Last week's Nintendo Download, which the briefing described as "20 native Switch 2 titles, 35 legacy Switch ports and Game Boy Advance classics," was 20 Switch 2 eShop releases, 35 Switch eShop releases, several of them the same game on both lists and many of them new indies rather than ports, and three Game Boy games, not Game Boy Advance: Avenging Spirit, Mole Mania and Revenge of the 'Gator. The Switch 2 names worth knowing are Cult of the Lamb and Darkest Dungeon II in their Switch 2 editions, PEAK, and the Tomb Raider Definitive Survivor Trilogy. (Worthplaying)

Lifetime numbers, for scale

The last official figures are from June 30: PS5 at 95.3 million shipped, Switch 2 at 23.68 million after its first thirteen months. Both companies report again on Thursday, November 5, the same day as the Zelda launch, and those numbers will replace the estimates I quoted last week. Last quarter both were down sharply year over year, Sony by about 36 percent and Nintendo by about 34 percent, which is what a price increase and a soft spring look like. September suggests Sony's number recovers. We'll know Thursday. (Push Square, Nintendo Life)

What I was sent, and what was wrong with it

• "Series X at $649." $799.99 since August 1. The source was an aggregator site with a gambling footer and a headline its own article didn't support.
• "Switch 2 slipped 12 percent." Dollars. Units were down 14.
• "Circana's late-October data." Posted October 22. The late-October part was the commentary.
• "Lost the fastest-selling crown" as if it happened in September. It was June, and it's second, to a 2001 handheld.
• "Game Boy Advance classics." Game Boy. Three of them.
• "Sony's steady software margins and day-and-date third-party support." Nothing in the data is about margins, and third parties ship day and date on PS5 and Xbox alike. Filler.
• "Expect Microsoft to lean on Game Pass promotions over the holidays." Probably true, and Microsoft's store has a sale window of November 19 to 28, but nothing has been announced, and GTA VI lands November 19 on PS5 and Xbox regardless of any promotion.

What I'd buy

If someone asked me this week: a PS5 for the person who wants the big third-party games and Sony's own, a Switch 2 for a household, and nothing from Xbox until the next one has a date and a price, unless Game Pass is the whole reason, in which case the $22.99 subscription on a PC you already own is the cheaper version of that idea. Black Friday is November 27. Sony hasn't announced console deals and Microsoft hasn't announced bundles. The refurbished PS5 at $549 from Sony's own store is the only early deal that exists. I'd wait three weeks before paying list for any of them.

Verified October 31, 2026. Circana's September figures from Mat Piscatella's thread, Kotaku, VGChartz and GamesBeat; Piscatella's quotes and Microsoft's supply statement from The Game Business; prices from Variety, the PlayStation Blog and Nintendo; Xbox segment results from Microsoft's fiscal Q1 2027 report. Circana publishes percentage changes, not unit counts, so any absolute Xbox unit number you see elsewhere is someone's estimate. Last week's worldwide-estimates post is here.