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We all knew game hardware spending would drop, but the July percentages are still shocking

Eurogamer
GameSpot
3outlets covering
6.9hspread over
+4hmedian lag
0.3outlets/hr now
TDGN Brief

GameSpot broke this story 9 hours ago, and 2 more newsrooms have run it since — 3 in all, spread over 6.9 hours.

The fastest follow came from Eurogamer, 5 minutes behind the first report. The median outlet followed 3.5 hours after the break. The pack has settled: no new outlet in 1.7 hours.

Early movers: GameSpot, Eurogamer, Destructoid.

  • First report: GameSpot, 9 hours ago
  • 3 outlets over 6.9 hours · median lag 3.5 hours

This briefing is compiled automatically by TDGN’s newsroom systems from 3 outlets’ reports and TDGN’s own coverage tracking — no generative AI — and it updates as coverage develops. The outlets’ original reporting is linked below.

Who reported it, and when

  1. first GameSpot US Video Game Spending Just Had One Of Its Worst Julys Ever
  2. +5m Eurogamer Hardware spending in the US was so low in July that it nearly matched the 2020 Pandemic days when everything was out of stock
  3. +7h Destructoid We all knew game hardware spending would drop, but the July percentages are still shocking

This page records how the games press covered one story. The reporting belongs to the outlets listed; every headline links to the original. Counts update as more outlets publish. The article itself follows below.

Rising3 outlets·0.3/hr nowtop 12%first: GameSpot

We all knew game hardware spending would drop, but the July percentages are still shocking

Destructoid · ·

Considering how every console and piece of hardware under the sun is now significantly more expensive due to AI-induced shortages, I am not at all surprised that people are buying them less. However, I never could have anticipated that things are going to drop so severely and so fast, but, alas, this is where we’re at now.

According to Circana’s Mat Piscatella, this July saw a dramatic decline in hardware purchases compared to the same period last year, with total hardware unit sales going down by 39 percent overall. With prices 16 percent higher than before, this ends up being a 29 percent total decrease in expenditure.

When individual consoles are looked at, PlayStation 5 saw the smallest decline at just six percent, while Xbox dropped by 18 percent. The worst performer, however, was the Nintendo Switch 2, which saw a sales decline of a whopping 51 percent between two Julies.

Hardware – July video game hardware spending fell 29% when compared to a year ago, to $282 million, the lowest total for a July month since 2020 ($163 million).

— Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) 2026-08-20T13:05:47.462Z

Nevertheless, the Switch 2 remains the best-selling console when total units are taken into account, and as Piscatella explains, it’s well on track to surpass the all-time figures of the original console. That alone should tell you just how little both PlayStation 5 and the Xbox are selling in raw numbers, even if their profits, due to significantly higher pricing, tend to indicate otherwise.

AI-induced hardware woes, primarily due to that technology hogging all the memory for itself, have started impacting pricing on basically any product out there that contains digital components. From your phone to your smart fridge to even a modern calculator, everything is getting more expensive, all so you could watch slop videos of Will Smith eating spaghetti in more elaborate ways.

The post We all knew game hardware spending would drop, but the July percentages are still shocking appeared first on Destructoid.

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