Circana: US hardware sales fell to 559,000 consoles in August 2026

• It was the weakest August result since 2013, when 423,000 hardware units were sold.
• The average selling price rose from $476 in 2025 to $541 in 2026, while Sony’s dollar revenue increased 17% despite 11% fewer units sold.

What happened

Circana reported that the US game hardware market fell back to 559,000 units sold in August 2026. That is 15% lower than a year earlier and the weakest August level since 2013, when the market came in at 423,000 units according to the same figures. The numbers were cited in reporting via GameSpot and attributed to Circana analyst Mat Piscatella.

Among the platforms, PlayStation hardware declined 11% year over year. Sony partly offset that drop with a higher price mix: dollar revenue rose 17% year over year, while the average hardware price in the US climbed from $476 in 2025 to $541 in 2026. That suggests consumers in August 2026 paid more on average for fewer consoles sold.

Xbox saw a sharper decline, with unit sales down 31% and its lowest August level since 2020. Nintendo hardware fell 15% in August 2026 compared with August 2025. The available figures do not provide absolute platform totals, but the direction is clear: all three major console brands saw US hardware sales decline that month.

The GameSpot-cited analysis places the weak month alongside high console prices, pressure on component costs, and mid-gen hardware upgrades. The video description explicitly references a $900 PS5 Pro as an example of a pricier model that can push the average selling price higher. The same context also notes that the current console generation, including Xbox Series X|S and PS5, is now six years old, which the reporting suggests may point to market saturation.

The combination of lower unit sales and higher average prices makes the month especially notable on the revenue side of the market. Sony’s dollar revenue grew despite fewer units sold, showing that price and product mix played a bigger role than volume alone in August 2026. At the same time, it remains unclear how much of the price increase came from pricier models, how much from price hikes, and how much from a shift in the mix of units sold.

Background

The figures come from Circana data as cited by GameSpot and show fewer consoles sold at higher prices. The cited analysis points to high hardware prices, component pressure, and more expensive mid-gen models as factors pushing the average selling price upward. The available information specifically notes that the average US price rose from $476 to $541 between August 2025 and August 2026.

The source also mentions the $900 PS5 Pro and points to possible market saturation in the current console generation. Those are explanations in the reporting, but the available figures do not show exactly how much each factor contributed to the August 2026 decline. It is also not clear how much of the revenue increase came from higher suggested prices, how much from a different product mix, or how much from bundles or other sales formats.

For PlayStation, it is clear that an 11% unit decline did not automatically lead to lower revenue. The 17% rise in dollar revenue shows that the US market spent more per console sold in August 2026 than a year earlier. For Xbox, the picture is less favorable: a 31% drop in unit sales and the lowest August level since 2020 point to a steeper decline than for the other platforms.

Nintendo also fell 15% year over year in the same month, following the broader downward trend. Because the available figures do not provide separate unit totals by platform, it remains difficult to quantify the exact relationship between the brands. What is clear is that the total market performed more weakly in August 2026 than in August 2025, while the average price continued to rise.

The combination of six-year-old hardware, higher prices, and more expensive variants makes the market more sensitive to shifts in demand at this stage. The reporting links that to possible saturation of the current console generation, but the figures themselves mainly show the result: fewer units sold, higher average prices, and a weak August that has not been seen since 2013.