PS5 console sales spiked in week leading up to price hike

Recently, Sony announced a fresh round of pricing adjustments for its PS5 console line-up, pushing costs up for the PS5, PS5 Digital Edition, the PS5 Pro, the PlayStation Portal and other accessories. As it turns out, this announcement pushed many US gamers into upgrading before the new pricing came into effect.

The industry analysts at Circana revealed that US spending on videogame hardware for the week ending on April 4th had doubled compared to the same week last year. Sales for PS5 consoles reached the highest point of the year in the week leading up to the price hikes, a great sign for companies like Rockstar, who will be banking heavily on the PS5 userbase when Grand Theft Auto 6 launches later this year.

As of April 2nd, Sony now has a new pricing structure in place for the PS5. The PS5 initially launched with a $399 entry-level price tag for the Digital Edition, going up to $499 for the disc-drive version. As of this month, the PS5 Digital Edition now costs $599, while the disc-drive version has gone up to $649. The PS5 Pro has been hit too, with prices going up from $749 to $899.

Typically in past console generations, at this point in the life cycle, we would be seeing prices dropping to well below $300. However, around 2022, supply chain struggles forced companies like Microsoft and Sony to raise prices for its (at the time) new consoles. Things seemed to settle after that but then in 2025, AI corporations like OpenAI began trying to buy up as much of the global RAM supply as possible, forcing all consumer electronics companies to rethink their pricing models due to inflated pricing.

KitGuru Says: These price hikes landing just six months ahead of Grand Theft Auto 6 is very unfortunate. Many had likely been waiting for this game specifically before making the jump to a new-gen console, and now a good chunk of those players could be priced out. 

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