Circana's Mat Piscatella published the analytics firm's 2026 gaming sales data showing reduced game and console sales, with total US market spend dropping across the board despite rising prices of both video games and gaming hardware. Total video game hardware sales in the US for the 2026 year to date saw a YoY drop of 11%, from $2.856 billion in 2025 to $2.543 billion in 2026.
Video game content, including physical and digital media, DLCs, microtransactions, and subscriptions, saw a 10% decline in August 2026 compared to the same month in 2025, but the year-to-date spend in the same category is down only 2%. The August 2026 content spending data shows a 7% decline in US console content spending, while PC content spending increased by 13%, and subscriptions grew by 3%. Much of this PC growth is likely driven by increasing PC hardware prices caused by the ongoing AI data center demand squeeze, instead of an actual increase in PC adoption.
Actual console unit sales fell 15% in August 2026 compared to 2025, although actual dollar spending is up 17% for PlayStation and down 13% for both Xbox Series and Nintendo Switch 2. Despite increased revenue amounts earned, PlayStation 5 unit sales declined 11% in August 2026 compared to the same month in 2025, while Xbox hardware unit sales dropped a brutal 31%, and Nintendo hardware sales dropped 15% compared to the previous year.
The Nintendo Switch 2 was still the best-selling console in the US for both unit sales and dollar spend for August 2026 and the 2026 year to date, even as overall console hardware spend fell 11% to $2.543 billion.
Source: TechPowerUp News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing