PlayStation raised the price of the PS5 worldwide earlier this year. It was only a matter of time before this had a detrimental effect on how many PlayStation consoles were bought, as the sharp drop in PS5 sales in the UK last month showed.
The price of the PS5 increased on April 2, 2026. As people rushed to buy the console at a lower price than it increased, PlayStation hardware sales increased. This means that although it was only one day, PS5 sales in April didn't really reflect the damage PlayStation suffered, making its latest console now significantly more expensive than when it launched more than five years ago.
PS5 sales halved in the UK last month
Now we have the May sales, courtesy of The Game Business, and it's not good reading for PlayStation. in the United Kingdom PS5 sales down 50 percent. That's compared to April, which again, while there would be a spike in sales on April 1st, very few people likely picked up the console for the remaining 29 days of the month.
Exact sales numbers haven't been shared, but to give you a slightly more detailed picture of how poorly the PS5 sold in the UK during May, it managed to beat the Xbox Series X|S. Last month, 400 more PS5s were sold in the UK than Xbox consoles. This is thanks to a combination of the now very expensive PS5, but also to people who picked up an Xbox because they wanted to be among the first to play Forza Horizon 6.
It turns out that delaying the PS5 release of Forza might have been a good idea after all.
The Switch 2 is selling well so far
The Nintendo Switch 2 was by far the best-selling console in the UK last month. There are several reasons for this. For starters, it's the cheapest by quite a long distance. It currently costs almost twice as much to buy a PS5 Pro in the UK as a Switch 2.
However, the driving force behind Switch 2 sales is the same one that drove PS5 sales up at the end of March. Nintendo has announced that it, too, cannot avoid passing on the harmful effects of rising RAM prices to its consumers. As of September 1, 2026, the Switch 2 will cost more than it does now, so sales are likely higher than expected because people are buying the console before the price goes up.
While PS5 sales have plummeted, there are almost certainly no plans to drop the price anytime soon. For starters, the lack of RAM will almost certainly only get worse. PlayStation will be hoping that a lot of people will also give in to the new pricing this November, because even though it's also being released on Xbox, the PS5 will almost certainly be where most people plan to play GTA 6. A lot of people who don't already own a current-gen console will buy it just for the game, regardless of the price.
- Mark
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Sony
- Original release date
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November 12, 2020
- Original MSRP (USD)
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$499, €499, £449, ¥49,980 (base) // $399, €399, £359, ¥39,980 (digital),
- Operating system
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OS Orbis
- Processor
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Custom 8-core AMD Zen 2
- Resolution
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720p – 8K
