PS5 sales hit record highs as price hike triggers massive buying rush

According to data from Circana’s retail tracking service, PlayStation 5 sales in the United States saw a major surge following the announcement of upcoming price increases. The spike was so significant that the week ending April 4 became the console’s best-performing sales week of the entire year so far.

Mat Piscatella, Senior Director and video game industry analyst at Circana, shared these insights on social media. He noted that Sony achieved its strongest weekly sales between March 29 and April 4, adding that overall US spending on video game hardware during that period nearly doubled compared to the same week the previous year.

This surge came right after Sony announced in late March that it would be raising prices across all PS5 models, citing “continued pressures in the global economic landscape.” Under the new pricing structure, the standard PS5 is set to increase to $649.99 / £569.99 / €649.99, while the PS5 Pro will jump to $899.99 / £789.99 / €899.99.

Under normal circumstances, consoles at this stage in their lifecycle would be seeing price reductions, often dropping well below $300. However, this generation has bucked that trend. Supply chain issues in 2022 already pushed Sony and Microsoft to raise prices early on, and while things briefly stabilized, new challenges emerged in 2025.

A key factor has been the rising cost of memory, largely driven by demand from AI-related industries. This has increased production costs across the board, impacting not just consoles but also PC hardware like RAM. These same pressures have contributed to delays in other hardware projects, such as Valve’s Steam Machine, and may even influence the pricing and release strategy of future systems like the PlayStation 6.

For now, the immediate effect is clear: the announcement of higher prices has triggered a wave of early purchases from consumers looking to avoid paying more later. As always, for the latest news on hardware launches and industry developments, be sure to follow our dedicated hardware coverage.