Anonymous
9/19/2025, 5:50:28 PM
No.721083016
[Report]
>>721083787
>>721084352
>>721086043
>>721088464
>>721089261
>>721090382
The Decline of Consoles
The Video Game Console market is shrinking, getting older and getting more affluent.
>US households with a $100,000+ income now make up 43% of video game hardware sales, a rise from 36% just a few years ago.
>18 – 24-year-olds only accounted for 3% of video game hardware purchases in the year ending July 2025, which is down from 10% for the same period ending July 2022.
>The average age of console players in 2024 was 27.9 years old. That’s up from 24.2 years old in 2018.
>Consoles are generating significantly more revenue than ever before.
>PS5 unit sales is currently tracking slightly behind PS4, while Xbox Series S and X significantly lag Xbox One.
>Last year in the US, 12 million console units were sold, the lowest figure in eight years
>by the end of 2025, the number of active devices for the PS5/Xbox Series generation will be 14 million behind what the PS4/Xbox One achieved during the same point in their lifecycle. The company estimates that gap will widen to 20 million by the end of 2026.
Why is this happening?
>The cost of consoles are continuing to rise during a time when families are growing concerned about food prices and tariffs.
>Consoles are not the entry-level game devices anymore, with tablets and smartphones becoming the typical ‘starter’ device for younger games. This poses a challenge for console makers on how to ‘upgrade’ customers from those devices to dedicated games machines.
>And with the rising cost of game development, we’re witnessing a drop in exclusives and an increased multiplatform focus from publishers. Even Xbox and PlayStation are releasing games on other devices (including PC). This potentially weakens the appeal of these machines.
https://archive.is/mkTWV
>US households with a $100,000+ income now make up 43% of video game hardware sales, a rise from 36% just a few years ago.
>18 – 24-year-olds only accounted for 3% of video game hardware purchases in the year ending July 2025, which is down from 10% for the same period ending July 2022.
>The average age of console players in 2024 was 27.9 years old. That’s up from 24.2 years old in 2018.
>Consoles are generating significantly more revenue than ever before.
>PS5 unit sales is currently tracking slightly behind PS4, while Xbox Series S and X significantly lag Xbox One.
>Last year in the US, 12 million console units were sold, the lowest figure in eight years
>by the end of 2025, the number of active devices for the PS5/Xbox Series generation will be 14 million behind what the PS4/Xbox One achieved during the same point in their lifecycle. The company estimates that gap will widen to 20 million by the end of 2026.
Why is this happening?
>The cost of consoles are continuing to rise during a time when families are growing concerned about food prices and tariffs.
>Consoles are not the entry-level game devices anymore, with tablets and smartphones becoming the typical ‘starter’ device for younger games. This poses a challenge for console makers on how to ‘upgrade’ customers from those devices to dedicated games machines.
>And with the rising cost of game development, we’re witnessing a drop in exclusives and an increased multiplatform focus from publishers. Even Xbox and PlayStation are releasing games on other devices (including PC). This potentially weakens the appeal of these machines.
https://archive.is/mkTWV
