PS5 Hardware Sales Spike

Last month’s announcement of a big PlayStation 5 price rise caused sales of console hardware to spike, with customers looking to buy ahead of the price increase kicking in.

Mat Piscatella, senior director and video game industry advisor at Circana, took to social media to say that U.S. weekly unit and dollar sales of PS5 hardware reached 2026 highs during the week ending April 4. The price rises came into effect on April 2.

Sony hiked the price of PS5, PS5 Pro, and PlayStation Portal, blaming “continued pressures in the global economic landscape.” The price rises were “a necessary step to ensure we can continue delivering innovative, high-quality gaming experiences to players worldwide,” Isabelle Tomatis, vice president, global marketing, Sony Interactive Entertainment, insisted in a post on the PlayStation Blog.

“With continued pressures in the global economic landscape, we’ve made the decision to increase the prices of PS5, PS5 Pro, and PlayStation Portal remote player globally,” Tomatis added. “We know that price changes impact our community, and after careful evaluation, we found this was a necessary step to ensure we can continue delivering innovative, high-quality gaming experiences to players worldwide.”

The standard PS5 with a disc drive went up by $100, as did the PS5 Digital Edition. The PS5 Pro, meanwhile, went up an eye-watering $150, to $900. The PlayStation Portal increased by $50. The price rises mean a new PS5 now starts at $600. When the standard PS5 launched back in November 2020, it cost $500.