PlayStation Leads US Console Use, but Its Own Sales Numbers Are Falling
PlayStation tops a new survey of US console use with 46%, the same year its own shipment numbers took a sharp drop.
The Numbers
Statista's Consumer Insights survey asked US respondents who regularly play video games which consoles they use. Six systems make up the bulk of it, current and previous generation alike.
What the Percentages Actually Show
These numbers don't split into a clean pie. They add up to 167%, well past 100%, because the survey counts everyone using a console regularly, not a single primary system. A lot of these respondents own more than one.
The Gap Nobody Expected
Xbox Series X/S sits behind its own predecessor, 21% to the Xbox One's 23%. That's not a rounding error, and it isn't isolated to this survey. Microsoft has stopped disclosing Xbox hardware shipment numbers in its earnings altogether, leaving third-party trackers to fill the gap. VGChartz's independent estimate puts lifetime Xbox Series X/S sales at around 34.67 million units, less than a third of PlayStation 5's console base. Xbox's own restructuring this year has already thinned out one of its flagship studios. A console generation trailing its predecessor fits the same year.
The Momentum the Survey Doesn't Capture
PlayStation's 46% looks commanding next to everyone else, but PS5 shipments fell 46% year over year in an early-2026 quarter, down to around 1.5 million units. Nintendo Switch 2 outsold the PS5 over the same stretch of its own early life. The original Switch, meanwhile, has sold 155.92 million units, about four million short of the PlayStation 2's all-time record, and is on pace to take that record within the next year.
Why Overall Demand Slowed
Console demand broadly has cooled as the cost-of-living crisis pushes non-essential spending down the priority list. The contrast with a few years earlier is sharp: the pandemic drove console demand up enough to empty shelves of the newly launched PS5 and give the original Switch, already three years old at the time, another sales bump.
