Xbox Sales Are Down 70%, And It’s Because You’re Broke (And Smart)

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If you chose food over a gaming console this Black Friday, congratulations—you just became a statistic in one of the industry’s most embarrassing months ever.

November 2025 officially became the weakest month for console revenue in two decades. This is supposed to be gaming’s golden month, the period when Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo rake in mountains of cash from eager buyers. Instead, according to a devastating Circana report (highlighted by Paul Tassi at Forbes), the entire industry just nosedived.

The Numbers Are Catastrophic (Xbox Sales Down 70%)

The figures are genuinely jaw-dropping, even for someone who expected bad news. Xbox Series X/S sales plummeted a staggering 70% compared to last year. That is not a downturn—that is a full-blown disaster. Sony is not celebrating either, watching PS5 sales tumble 40%. Even the seemingly untouchable Nintendo experienced a 10% decline, despite the Switch 2 hitting shelves just this past June.

Physical game sales? They have cratered to levels not seen since 1995. Welcome to the nightmare scenario.

It’s The Prices, Stupid

Understanding why this happened does not require an economics PhD. Traditionally, console prices decrease as hardware ages. In 2025, we are living in opposite world. Between tariffs and vague “market conditions” (translation: everything costs too much), the entry barrier has become nearly impossible to climb.

Here is the brutal reality. An Xbox Series X now runs between $600 and $800 depending on which bundle you choose. The Series S, originally positioned as the affordable alternative, costs $400 to $450. That exceeds what a brand-new PS5 cost half a decade ago. As for Sony, snagging a PS5 Pro means parting with $750. For a single console.

These prices are completely disconnected from reality.

Microsoft Saw This Coming

The warning signs appeared long ago, which explains Microsoft’s strange marketing shift. They have essentially been advertising that you do not actually need their hardware. When your premium console costs as much as a beater vehicle, pushing “just use Game Pass on your Fire Stick” stops being strategy and starts being desperation.

A Luxury We Can’t Afford

Here is the uncomfortable truth: 70% of Americans feel economically squeezed out. When rent and groceries devour every dollar you earn, a $750 PS5 Pro or $800 Xbox is not merely a hard purchase to justify—it feels like a slap in the face.

Gaming finds itself in strange territory where PC enthusiasts face suffocating GPU costs while console players confront prices that push hardware toward extinction. If you secured a console back in 2020, treasure it. That machine might represent the last reasonably priced gaming hardware you ever own.