PS5 Sales Fall 50% in the UK in May, Barely Outsold Xbox Series - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 04 June 2026 / 5,887 Views
Editor-in-chief and co-founder of The Game Business Christopher Dring has announced PlayStation 5 sales fell 50 percent in the UK in the month of May. This is according to NielsenIQ data.
The PS5 only outsold the Xbox Series X|S by about 400 units for the month. Xbox Series sales did increase 12 percent for the month, which was helped by the release of Forza Horizon 6.
The Nintendo Switch 2 was easily the best-selling console in May.
"In the UK, PS5 sales fell 50% in May," said Dring. "It only outsold Xbox Series S/X by 400 units (which saw a 12% rise, helped by console exclusive Forza Horizon 6). Switch 2 was easily No.1 (NielsenIQ)."
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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Pricing matters, confirmed. Surprise surprise.
Everyone: Xbox Series has no chance to regain any footing in this console race. It's over.
Sony: Let me see if I can help...
Everyone: wait, what? what are you doing???
Sony: don't worry I got this proceeds to commit console suicide by massive price increase
Everyone: jaws drop
A necessary wake-up call that there is a hard price cap on consoles.
Good. Sony's bull in the china shop behaviour is absolutely horrendous. They managed to turn me from a massive fan into someone who has absolutely no interest in their products.
PS5 is the first Sony home console I have not bought (and probably will not, considering how expensive it is). I ended up getting a Switch 2 and loving it
oof
If they don't get prices down, upward PS5 sales are effectively dead
2026: Wii suddenly has a shot at outselling PS5 again
Sony actually skipped the pistol and straight up sent a nuke on their own foot
The worst thing is that Sony probably doesn't care, they would rather keep the profitability than stead sales volume.
They want to make money from existing users, which means we can still get more price increases on PS+ or even them raising game prices to $80.
If it is making they worried at least we could see them trying to improve, but I really think they just don't care about PS5 sales at this point.
That could bite them in thr next generations
looks at current world
Yeah, no kidding.
Before we only had 1 console laying in its grave waiting to be covered in dirt (xbox) then Sony had a brilliant idea to see if they can make 2 dead console fit in the same coffin.
Eventually when you keep increasing prices you'll find out the breaking point for consumers. Obviously $600 is their breaking point. The PS5 gonna slow crawl to 100 million now.
Good. To be honest, sales should've dropped even earlier, because prices have been terrible for ages now, but better late than never.
Lol.
No justification for the price hike. They may be using it to anticipate GTA 5 which debuts on consoles before going on PC.
Yeah that boy dead.
Sony seems to be trying to deliver the global video game market to Nintendo on a silver platter.
At lieast until the Switch 2's upcoming price increase kicks in, anyway. But if Nintendo could find some way to mitigate that, they'd be in a strong position.
That price hike was diabolical!
Thank you to everyone who responded to Sony with their wallets.
I wonder if Microsoft still stick to their (rumored) plan to release a 1000$ console next gen, if they see this.
Well, the EU on a whole did miles better than Xbox. But we are all struggling here in the UK, so yeah.
Being honest, UK consumers don't have much money to spare after bills. Buying a gaming console for over £450 is just too much. Switch 2 is priced correctly here at the moment and Series S will do well with Forza Horizon 6
Can GTA 6 reverse this?
