Right before the PlayStation 5 's latest price increase went into effect on April 2 , sales of the Sony current-generation console peaked in the United States according to data provided by Circana's Matt Piscatella , indicating how real the fear of price increases is for consumers in the US .

“US weekly unit and $ sales of PlayStation 5 hardware reached 2026 highs during the week ending April 4th, as price increases loomed,” wrote Piscatella on . “US spending on video game hardware for the week nearly doubled when compared to the same week a year ago.”

Unfortunately, Circana's Video Game Industry Advisor did not specify if these sales include both the base PlayStation 5 and the PlayStation 5 Pro models, or are limited to the base models. Considering that, despite a big price jump, the PlayStation 5 Pro is becoming a more enticing system for higher-end gaming amidst significant price increases of PC hardware , it will be interesting to see how many systems were sold before the price increase. It will also be very interesting to see how the PlayStation 5 units will sell this month and beyond , and whether reduced sales will push Sony to change its strategy going forward.

The constant price increases in the current console generation have made both the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X|S more expensive than they were at launch in November 2020 , casting a looming shadow over the next-generation systems' pricing . While the Xbox Project Helix 's higher price could be justified by its hybrid console/PC design, the PlayStation 6 will continue to target pure console gaming. Even if Sony releases the system with a price in the $700 range , it may have a hard time convincing users to upgrade , according to Alderon Games founder Matthew Cassells .

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