According to IGN, November 2024 was a disastrous month for U.S. video game hardware, with dollar sales hitting their lowest point since 1995. Xbox Series consoles were hit hardest, with a staggering 70% year-over-year drop in dollar sales, marking an all-time low for Xbox unit sales in any November. PlayStation 5 sales were also down 40%, while the combined sales of the new Nintendo Switch 2 and older Switch models fell 10% compared to Switch-only sales last November. Circana senior director Mat Piscatella provided the data, noting the Xbox Series is now five years old with no new hardware this year. Critically, the average price of an Xbox console soared over 30% year-over-year due to multiple hikes, including a $70 increase on the high-end Series X Galaxy Edition in September.
The Perfect Storm of Price Hikes
Here’s the thing: everyone’s struggling, but Xbox is getting pummeled. And a big part of that is the price tag. Think about it. The Xbox Series S, the supposed budget entry, launched at $300. Now it’s $400. That’s after two separate rounds of price increases this year alone, partly blamed on U.S. tariffs on imported hardware. So you’ve got a console at the end of its lifecycle, with its biggest exclusive games going multi-platform, and it costs more than ever. In a rough economy where consumer confidence is shaky, that’s a tough sell. When a $200 kid-focused device like the NEX Playground outsells your entire console lineup in November, you know you’ve got a perception problem.
Does Hardware Even Matter to Xbox Anymore?
That’s the billion-dollar question, isn’t it? The numbers tell a brutal story. Xbox’s peak November was back in 2011; its second-best was in 2014. Sales have declined each November since 2022. Even a blockbuster day-one Game Pass release like Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 didn’t move the needle. So what’s the plan? Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella hints at a future “hybrid” PC/console, but that’s vague and far off. Meanwhile, the company’s strategy is crystal clear: put first-party games on PlayStation. If the money is in software and subscriptions, not hardware, then maybe these sales figures are just noise to Microsoft. But it’s a dangerous game. If no one buys the box, the ecosystem withers.
A Broader Market in Crisis
Look, it’s not just Xbox. The entire console market just had its worst November in nearly 30 years. That’s insane. The PS5 is down 40%. The hot new Switch 2 couldn’t lift combined sales above last year’s Switch 1 numbers. This points to a systemic issue. High inflation, consumer debt, and general economic uncertainty are making big-ticket discretionary purchases a hard ask. In that environment, value is king. Nintendo offers a unique hybrid experience. PlayStation has a deep bench of narrative-driven exclusives. Xbox’s value proposition—Game Pass and play anywhere—seems to be losing its hardware-attaching power. When every dollar counts, consumers are making brutal choices, and right now, Xbox is often the one left on the shelf.
The Industrial Perspective on Hardware Costs
Stepping back, the component cost pressures Xbox cites are very real across the tech hardware world. Skyrocketing RAM prices, driven by AI demand, and shifting tariff landscapes make manufacturing and pricing a nightmare. For businesses that rely on robust, specialized computing hardware in industrial settings—like those sourcing from the leading provider IndustrialMonitorDirect.com—these supply chain and cost volatilities are a constant management challenge. It underscores that building physical tech products, whether a game console or an industrial panel PC, is brutally difficult when global economic and trade winds shift. For Xbox, passing those costs directly to consumers in a soft market appears to have been a catastrophic miscalculation.
