PS5 Best-Seller, XS and NS Have Worst Month Yet - Americas Hardware Estimates for May 2025 - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 09 July 2025 / 6,298 Views
The PlayStation 5 was the best-selling console in the Americas (USA, Canada, & Latin America) with 269,735 units sold for May 2025, according to VGChartz estimates. The PlayStation 5 has now sold an estimated 30.88 million units lifetime in the Americas.
The Nintendo Switch was the second best-selling console with an estimated 88,067 units sold to bring lifetime sales to 56.82 million units. The Xbox Series X|S came in third place with 86,189 units sold to bring its lifetime sales to 20.41 million units.
May 2025 was the worst month in the Americas for the Nintendo Switch and Xbox Series X|S. The previous worst month was April 2025 for the Switch with 99,078 units sold and was May 2024 for the Xbox Series X|S with 133,795 units sold.
PS5 sales compared to the same month for the PS4 in 2018 are down by nearly 21,000 units, while the Xbox Series X|S compared to the same month for the Xbox One are down by nearly 108,000 units. PS4 sold 290,657 units for the month of May 2018 and Xbox One sales were at 194,043 units.
PlayStation 5 sales compared to the same month a year ago are down by 13,550 (-4.8%). Xbox Series X|S sales are down by 47,606 units (-35.6%) and Nintendo Switch sales are down by 70,427 units (-44.4%).
Looking at sales month-on-month, PlayStation 5 sales are down by over 10,000 units, Xbox Series X|S sales are down by over 54,000 units, and Nintendo Switch sales are down by over 11,000 units.
2025 year-to-date, the PlayStation 5 has sold an estimated 1.66 million units, the Xbox Series X|S has sold 0.77 million units, and the Nintendo Switch has sold 0.64 million units.
Monthly Sales:
Americas hardware estimates for May 2025 (Followed by lifetime sales):
- PlayStation 5 - 269,735 (30,881,965)
- Switch - 88,067 (56,819,341)
- Xbox Series X|S - 86,189 (20,414,413)
USA hardware estimates for May 2025:
- PlayStation 5 - 226,651
- Switch - 74,257
- Xbox Series X|S - 72,922
Weekly Sales:
May 10, 2025 hardware estimates:
Americas:
- PlayStation 5 - 71,449
- Switch - 24,971
- Xbox Series X|S - 24,483
USA:
- PlayStation 5 - 59,987
- Switch - 21,092
- Xbox Series X|S - 20,756
May 17, 2025 hardware estimates:
Americas:
- PlayStation 5 - 66,274
- Switch - 22,655
- Xbox Series X|S - 22,263
USA:
- PlayStation 5 - 55,720
- Switch - 19,068
- Xbox Series X|S - 18,817
May 24, 2025 hardware estimates:
Americas:
- PlayStation 5 - 64,558
- Switch - 20,488
- Xbox Series X|S - 20,046
USA:
- PlayStation 5 - 54,225
- Switch - 17,273
- Xbox Series X|S - 16,983
May 31, 2025 hardware estimates:
Americas:
- PlayStation 5 - 67,454
- Switch - 19,953
- Xbox Series X|S - 19,397
USA:
- PlayStation 5 - 56,719
- Switch - 16,824
- Xbox Series X|S - 16,366
VGChartz Methodology: Hardware estimates are based on retail sampling and trends in individual countries, which are then extrapolated to represent the wider region. This typically allows us to produce figures that end up being within 10% of the actual totals.
This data is regularly compared against official shipment figures released by the console manufacturers and figures estimated by regional trackers with greater market coverage than ourselves. We then update our own estimates to bring them into line with those figures. This can result in frequent changes often within a short space of time, but we feel it's important to prioritise accuracy over consistency.
Note that our estimates are based on sell-through data (units sold to consumers). In almost all cases the figures released by console manufacturers are based on shipment data (sell-in), where as soon as a device has left the factory and entered the supply chain for delivery it is considered a sale. This is why there is always a difference between the companies’ figures (sell-in) and VGChartz estimates (sell-through), even after we’ve made adjustments. The one exception to that is when a console has been discontinued and the remaining stock has finally sold out – at that point the figures will match.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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86k. That can't be far off what the PS4 and Xbone were selling before they were replaced by XBS/PS5.
Wild that Switch still outsold XSX and XSS just one month before S2 released lol
Was this the first month when the price increases started for Xbox Series S|X? That is brutal for them...
Thank you for the updates, @trunkswd!
(PS: if you'd now manage to wait for July estimates and go forward with that pattern, you'd always have one completed month of estimates in the bank to evade holes of data and be able to publish new data regularly as you see fit. Just thinking out loud. :))
It's always good to see when PS5 numbers ain't that far away from aligned PS4 numbers.
Even year-on-year (-4.8%) and month-on-month estimates (-10k units) aren't that bad, at all.
In both, X|S were hit substantially harder (-35.6% | -54k), falling even below the 100k mark (again?) in the US in a single month.
Not due to Schadenfreude, but the on-going development of X|S estimates will be really interesting to follow throughout this and next year.
I think we'd rather have holes but get everything up asap, than have a steady stream of data but it be even more delayed than NPD.
This is the first month we have XS below 100k in the US, though it came fairly close last month and back in April & May of 2024.
That's true.
To be able to apply such pattern would demand to wait for July numbers in this case now - which will arguably be by mid/end of August.
Even if only once & never again after that, it would be a single heavy stretch.
I can understand your choice!
Hopefully, there will be some new arrangements with European data soon, too. It's baffling me that in 2025 there were such huge disagreements who is to collect and work with that data.
I don't really understand the patchwork-esque collection of European data anyway.
Thanks for replying! :)
