{"id":531775,"date":"2026-04-15T07:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T07:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/531775\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T07:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T07:22:10","slug":"us-ps5-hardware-sales-hit-a-2026-high-prior-to-huge-price-increase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/531775\/","title":{"rendered":"US PS5 Hardware Sales Hit a 2026 High Prior to Huge Price Increase"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"US<\/a> Image: Push Square<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, US consumers flocked to stores to pick up PS5 hardware prior to the console\u2019s enormous price increase<\/a> earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Circana analyst Mat Piscatella reveals<\/a> that Sony\u2019s console enjoyed its highest sales of 2026 so far during the week ending 4th April.<\/p>\n

The system\u2019s price increase officially went into effect on 2nd April, but the news was announced a few days earlier, on 27th March, giving consumers an opportunity to act.<\/p>\n

Piscatella says the system achieved calendar year highs<\/a> for both units and dollar sales, and \u201cUS spending on video game hardware for the week nearly doubled when compared to the same week a year ago\u201d.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, US weekly unit and $ sales of PlayStation 5 hardware reached 2026 highs during the week ending April 4th, as price increases loomed.<\/p>\n

US spending on video game hardware for the week nearly doubled when compared to the same week a year ago.<\/p>\n

Source: Circana Retail Tracking Service<\/p>\n

\u2014 Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social)<\/a> 2026-04-14T12:21:16.462Z<\/a><\/p>\n

Of course, this brief uplift will be balanced against a subsequent decline, as we can\u2019t imagine Sony\u2019s system will be doing much business outside of big game releases or promotional periods for the remainder of the year.<\/p>\n

As a reminder, the cheapest PS5 Digital Edition model now costs $599.99, an eye-watering $200 more than it cost at launch almost six years ago.<\/p>\n

Sony has blamed a number of economic headwinds, including the surge in cost of materials like memory, for the increase.<\/p>\n

Unless the launch of GTA 6<\/a> brings a miracle later this year, it\u2019s going to struggle to maintain sales pace with the PS4, which was selling for as little as $299.99 during the same point in its respective lifespan.<\/p>\n

Did you pick up a new PS5 prior to the price hike? Or are you happy with the hardware you\u2019ve already got? Let us know below.<\/p>\n

[source bsky.app<\/a>]<\/p>\n

\tSee Also<\/p>\n

\"Sammy<\/p>\n

As the Editor of Push Square, Sammy has over 15 years of experience analysing the world of PlayStation, from PS3 through PS5 and everything in between. He\u2019s an expert on PS Studios and industry matters, as well as sports games and simulators. He also enjoys RPGs when he has the time to dedicate to them, and is a bit of a gacha whale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Image: Push Square Unsurprisingly, US consumers flocked to stores to pick up PS5 hardware prior to the console\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[59,873,112,3965,622,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-531775","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-hardware","10":"tag-ps5","11":"tag-sales","12":"tag-sony","13":"tag-technology","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}