UK PS5 and Xbox sales jumped by a third following GTA 6’s Netflix reveal

PlayStation and Xbox console sales jumped by a third in the UK following Grand Theft Auto 6’s Netflix reveal last week.

That’s according to Nielsen HQ data supplied to The Game Business, which suggests that UK PS5 sales jumped 33% last week, while Xbox Series S and X sales grew by 34%.

More than 30 million people watched the GTA 6 ‘Extended Look’ on Netflix, which appears to have contributed to widespread PS5 sellouts, with many retailers currently not stocking consoles.

The news will come as a relief to hardware manufacturers, as sales are currently down 14.4% year-on-year in the UK, largely due to a decline in sales of PS5 consoles, which are down 32% (Xbox Series S and X sales are actually up 3.1%).

In the US, consoles had their worst July since the pandemic, partly due to supply constraints and significant price increases due to the global components shortage.

According to Circana, the average price paid for a new unit of video game hardware in the US reached $502 in May, which is up 14% compared to a year ago ($440). Last month, the average price of a PlayStation 5 console increased by 33% versus a year ago to $672, with Xbox Series up 22%, to $524.

Speaking to The Game Business, Newzoo’s Ronan Patrick predicted that hardware sales may not benefit as much as hoped from GTA 6’s release in November.

“The PS5 in inflation-adjusted terms is 67% more expensive [than at launch], and Xbox is twice as expensive,” he said. “We expect, because of [GTA] and Call of Duty, to see an uptick in the install base, but nothing particularly massive.

“But perhaps some of the fears are overblown when it comes to software. It’s important to remember that the lion’s share of time is often spent on older titles, and the closest analogy we have to a hardware shock is during the 2020-2021 GPU shortage, and you didn’t see engagement or revenue being taken off course. You basically saw a reallocation of spend into software.”