Despite the success of Nintendo Switch 2 Following its June release, a new report shows that November video game hardware sales in the U.S. hit a low not seen since the mid-1990s. The Switch 2 has charted in November 2025 sales figures in the US, but the report shows that while spending on consoles has decreased, console prices have risen relative to November 2024.
It's no secret that the Switch 2 has been a successful console for Nintendo, selling over 10 million units worldwide in the first four months after release. However, the Switch 2's initial price of $449 has been a point of contention for some consumers. For Black Friday 2025, Nintendo has decided not to offer any special Switch 2 console bundle discounts for shoppers to consider. Instead, Nintendo offered discounts on a variety of first-party Switch games, including: Luigi's Mansion 3 and super mario odyssey. The Switch 2 can play original Switch titles through backward compatibility, but the lack of Nintendo's holiday console bundle hasn't gone unnoticed by consumers. In comparison, Sony has offered an alternative, the PS5 Fortnite Flowering Chaos Bundle, with prices starting as low as $399 for the digital version.
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Video game hardware sales have reached lows not seen since the SNES era.
But the apparent success of the Switch 2 wasn't enough to stem the downward trend in the U.S. console hardware market in November 2025. According to a report published on Bluesky by Circana senior director Mat Piscatella, only 1.6 million consoles were sold across all platforms in the U.S. in November 2025, the lowest for the month of November not seen since 1995 and a 30-year gap. In November 1995, when consoles like SNES, Sega Genesis, and the original PlayStation dominated the market, video game hardware sales in the United States amounted to only 1.4 million units. Piscatella also said monthly hardware spending last month was $695 million, down 27% from November 2024, marking the lowest hardware spending in 20 years.
The Switch 2 ranked in the top three consoles sold in the US in November 2025, but was surpassed by the PS5. The NEX Playground system, which made a splash for the PS5 in mid-November, ranked third in hardware sold in the U.S., while the Xbox Series X/S ranked third in dollars. For software, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 was the best-selling game of the month, despite lower sales compared to November 2024. Video game content revenue increased slightly year-over-year, with a 16% increase in subscription spending and a 2% increase in mobile game revenue, offsetting declines in console and PC content spending.
More bad news for console buyers
Despite making significant money in November 2025, Xbox console sales in the U.S. were down 70% compared to the previous year, Piscatella said. This is an all-time low for Microsoft's console lineup for the month of November. The decline in hardware sales, especially for Xbox consoles, can be partially explained by rising hardware costs due to a variety of economic factors, including the U.S. government's tariffs on various goods from countries such as China. Due to tariffs, Microsoft has already raised the prices of its Xbox Series To make matters worse, there are rumors that Xbox console prices may be rising again, this time due to the ongoing RAM crisis affecting the entire hardware industry.
The RAM situation will likely also affect Switch 2 console sales in 2026. That's because DRAM contract prices from companies like Samsung virtually doubled during the fall 2025 season. So customers looking to buy a Switch 2 may not want to wait for the holidays to pass before potential price increases start piling up.
Source: IGN, Nintendo Life
