Video Gaming Hardware Sales witness biggest drop since January 2020

The Video Game Hardware Sales have witnessed the biggest drop in five years. According to Mat Piscatella, the spending for video games in January 2025 went down by 45% compared to January 2024. According to the executive director and industry analyst at Circana, $205 million spent on video games in Jan 2025 is the lowest since the $131 million spent in January 2020.

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Piscatella took to X and shared statistics about the purchase of the Video Gaming hardware. Mat claimed there was a drop of about 45% in January 2025 compared to 2024. He mentioned the total sale of video games in the month to be $205 million and referred to it as the least money spent since Jan 2020 when $131 million was spent.

"January video game hardware spending dropped 45% when compared to a year ago, to $205 million. This is the lowest January total for video game hardware spending since the $131 million reached in January 2020," wrote Mat on X. Many felt it was a concerning number.

Drop in Video Gaming Hardware sales of Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PS5

When Piscatella spoke about the hardware video game sales in 2024, he claimed a total of $349 million was purchased in January. There has been a major drop in the sales of some of the top video gaming hardware companies. Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and PS5's year-by-year sales went down drastically.

While PS5 witnessed a drop of 38%, Xbox and Nintendo Switch had a massive drop of 50% and 53% respectively. However, the drop in Hardware sales has been inversely proportional to the software sales. There was a 10-year peak period during the pandemic as many preferred software over hardware in tough times.

There has been optimism from the experts about the increase in hardware sales. Nintendo Switch 2 and the Grand Theft Auto 6 are set to release which are likely to affect hardware sales. The numbers led to many thinking that there has been a gradual switch of users from the hardware modes to the software modes.