With the entire PS5 line-up getting major price hikes earlier this month, according to Circana analyst Mat Piscatella, many in the US have rushed to get their hands on the console before the prices could go up. In a BlueSky post, Piscatella revealed that the weekly unit and dollar sales of PS5 hardware in the US reached 2026 highs on the week ending on April 4th.
Interestingly, this rush to buy the console also led to gaming hardware spending in the country being nearly double what it was in the same week last year. “Unsurprisingly, US weekly unit and $ sales of PlayStation 5 hardware reached 2026 highs during the week ending April 4th, as price increases loomed,” he wrote. “US spending on video game hardware for the week nearly doubled when compared to the same week a year ago.”
Piscatella hasn’t revealed more granular details about the hardware sold, however, such as how many of these sales were for the base PS5 when compared to the PS5 Pro. It is also unknown whether these sales figures take into account the PlayStation Portal, which, while not a console on its own, also saw price hikes alongside PS5s.
We’ve already seen how the PS5 console price hikes have affected other markets in the world. Earlier this week, a report by Famitsu revealed that only 840 units of the PS5 Pro and 558 units of the PS5 with disc drive were sold in Japan in the week ending on April 5th. Interestingly, however, the PS5 Digital Edition continued to do relatively well, selling 12,141 units in the week. In total, the PS5 hardware family sold 13,539 units in Japan in that week—a number dwarfed by the Nintendo Switch 2, which saw 59,543 sales in the same period. It is worth noting that the sales of the PS5 and PS5 Pro in Japan for that week were comparable to sales of Xbox hardware, which has historically done quite poorly in the country.
Sony announced worldwide price hikes for PlayStation hardware just last month, noting that the new prices would go into effect from April 2nd onwards. Due to this, the base PS5 now retails for $649.99/£569.99/€649.99/¥97,980, up from $549.99/£479.99/€499.99/¥79,980, depending on your region. The PS5 Digital Edition also saw a jump, going up to $599.99/£519.99/€599.99/¥89,980. Similarly, the PS Portal now costs $249.99/£219.99/€249.99/¥39,980. Hardest hit by the hikes was the PS5 Pro, which now costs $899.99/£789.99/€899.99/¥137,980, up from $749.99/£699.99/€799.99/¥119,980.
“We know that price changes impact our community, and after careful evaluation, we found this was a necessary step to ensure we can continue delivering innovative, high-quality gaming experiences to players worldwide,” said Sony in a statement about the price hikes.
These price hikes have also led analysts to believe that the next-generation console, the PS6, might end up costing up to 50 percent more than the PS5. Several analysts have noted that disruptions in the global economy made these jumps in prices inevitable, and the fact that there has been a memory shortage hasn’t helped matters.
Unsurprisingly, US weekly unit and $ sales of PlayStation 5 hardware reached 2026 highs during the week ending April 4th, as price increases loomed.US spending on video game hardware for the week nearly doubled when compared to the same week a year ago.Source: Circana Retail Tracking Service
— Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) 2026-04-14T12:21:16.462Z
