Switch 2 Best-Seller in the US in May 2026, 007 First Light Debuts in 1st - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted 6 hours ago / 3,669 Views
The Nintendo Switch 2 was the best-selling console in the US for May 2026 in terms of units sold and dollar sales, according to figures from Circana (formerly The NPD Group). Circana includes the dates for the four-week period of May 3 to 30.
Lifetime sales for the Switch 2 through 12 months are at 5.9 million units in the US. It is the second fastest video game hardware in US tracked history with it only behind the Game Boy Advance, which sold 6.5 million units in the same amount of time.
The PlayStation 5 came in second place once again in terms of units sold and dollar sales, followed by the Xbox Series X|S in third place.
The PlayStation 5 in terms of dollar sales is down 43 percent year-on-year, while unit sales are down 58 percent. Xbox Series X|S dollar sales are up seven percent, while unit sales are down 12 percent. PlayStation hardware units fell to the lowest for the month of May since May 2000, while for Xbox unit sales are the lowest ever for the month of May.
The average price of a video game hardware unit sold increased 14 percent year-on-year to $502. The average PS5 price or the month increased 33 percent to $672, while Xbox Series is up 22 percent to $524.
Overall spending on video games in May increased three percent year-on-year from $4.08 billion to $4.18 billion. Spending on video game content was up one percent from $3.74 billion to $3.77 billion, while video game hardware sales increased 38 percent from $180 million to $239 million. Spending on accessories increased eight percent from $155 million to $1568million.
In terms of 2026 total sales, overall spending on video games is up four percent year-on-year from $22.04 billion to $23.00 billion. Spending on video game content increased three percent from $19.91 billion to $20.43 billion, while video game hardware sales grew 37 percent from $1.15 billion to $1.58 billion. Spending on accessories is up less than one percent from $976 million to $979 million.
"007 First Light and Nintendo Switch 2 Drive 3% US Video Game Spending Growth in May 2026.," said Circana Executive Director and Video Game Industry Analyst Mat Piscatella.
He added, "US video game spending reached $4.2 billion in May 2026, an increase of 3% when compared to a year ago. Year-to-date spending finished May 4% higher than 2025, at $23.0 billion."
007 First Light was the best-selling game in US in May 2026 and is already the fourth best-selling game of 2026 year-to-date. It was also the best-selling game on PlayStation consoles in terms of full game dollar sales.
Launch month full game dollar sales for 007 First Light was the highest ever for a video game based on the James Bond franchise.
Forza Horizon 6 was the second best-selling game for the month and already the fifth best-selling game of the year. It was the best-selling game on Xbox and PC in terms of full game dollar sales.
Other games to debut in the top 10 include LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight in third place, Subnautica 2 in fourth place, and Yoshi and the Mysterious Book in eighth place.
Here are the top 10 best-selling games in terms of dollars for May 2026:
Here are the top 10 best-selling games in May year-to-date:
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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Nintendo will have the advantage as their price hikes won't hit the US until the fall. As it stands, Switch2 is $150 less than the cheapest variant of PS5. As always, Nintendo is the least powerful system on the market being carried by Nintendo's own games(similar to the Wii vs. the 360/PS3).
“PlayStation hardware units fell to the lowest for the month of May since May 2000, while for Xbox unit sales are the lowest ever for the month of May.” Yeah… this is very concerning to hear especially when we haven’t even seen the worst of it as far as prices are concerned.
I mean, what do these gaming companies even do at this point? Are they not all just completely screwed over in the short-term?
Yeah, PS consoles selling less than 100k during a month in the US was something that pretty much never happened historically, and now due to the RAMpocalypse it will be something that probably happens reguarly during the rest of the PS5 generation as well as pretty quickly during the PS6 generation due to the likely sky high price point of the PS6. So consoles will soon no longer be a mass market targeting device, it will mostly be an enthusiast gamer device on current trajectory.
With budgets inflated as they are for these AAA games, this all just wreaks of a major crash inbound. My only guess as to the path forward is we’ll start seeing developers supporting several generations of systems at once (e.g. PS4, PS5, and PS6), at least as far as third-party is concerned. Too risky to place your eggs into the current gen basket.
I think that was due in part to the transition from PlayStation (original) to PSone, the amazing super cute, super small redesign. That was first announced in spring 2000 (I believe), then released in July 2000 for Japan and September 2000 for North America/EU.
That would make sense. I just read there were stock issues at the time.
Yeah, they were probably ramping down production of the one, while still ramping up production of the other. This was the beginning of me becoming a big PlayStation fan and buying multiple systems. I sold my OG PlayStation and bought the PSone redesign, and a PS2 at launch that Sep as well.
I would go on to get a PS2 Slim. PS3 at launch, then a PS3 Slim (not the Super Slim though, that was ugly lol). PS4 at launch, then PS4 Pro, and finally PS5 at launch. No PS5 Slim or PS5 Pro though. The Pro was just way too much, and the PS5 Slim started off costing the same while being worse, and now costs even more! :/
I've kept my PSone, PS2 Slim, PS3 Slim, PS4 Pro and PS5 - so I can always go back and play older titles on original hardware.
It seems that unless GTA 6 gives PS5 a win in November in the US, PS5 may not win a month in the US the rest of the generation. That would mean the last win for PS5 at Circana will have been February 2026.
Dont celebrate to much, switch 2 is 100% going to get a hefty increase to.
Once again Nintendo kinda struck some luck in here if they play their cards right. Yes the Switch 2 will have an upgrade in price in the fall, but i def see them releasing a Switch 2 lite next year alongside their big Mario et Pokemon games. In the middle of maybe another price hike, releasing a cheap model could be pretty big.
