The PlayStation 5 was the best-selling console in the United States in Circana's September 2026 period, both in units and in dollar sales, ahead of the Nintendo Switch 2 and the Xbox Series X|S. The figures were published on October 22 by Circana analyst Mat Piscatella and reported by VGChartz, Pure Xbox and GamingBolt, covering the four-week period from August 30 to October 3 — not exactly the calendar month of September.
Year over year in units, PS5 rose 22%, Switch 2 fell 14% and Xbox Series X|S dropped 27%. Overall US hardware units fell 3%. In hardware dollar sales, PS5 grew 43%, Xbox Series X|S fell just 2% and Nintendo Switch fell 12%, as reported by VGChartz — which uses the term Nintendo Switch for that item, not Switch 2 specifically.
The gap between units and dollars helps explain the Xbox result: fewer consoles sold, but at a higher average price. According to the reports, the average price paid for an Xbox reached $663, up from $497 a year earlier. Total US hardware spending rose 12% to $362 million, while total video game spending fell 1% to $4.76 billion.
Two records stand out. According to Piscatella, the Xbox ecosystem had its worst September ever in the US, beating the previous negative record set last year. Sony's share of hardware dollar sales, meanwhile, reached its highest monthly level since May 2025, the month before Switch 2 launched.
It is important to state what these data do not show: they cover only the United States, a single four-week period, and on their own do not prove a cause for Xbox's decline or PS5's rise. In software, the month's highlight was Marvel's Wolverine, which debuted at number one and, according to Piscatella, posted the highest launch-month dollar sales for a Sony-published title since Helldivers II in February 2024.
Sources: VGChartz — PS5 Outsells Switch 2 in the US in September 2026; Pure Xbox — Xbox & Nintendo Console Sales Suffer YoY Decreases; GamingBolt — PS5 Hardware Sales Soar in the US for September
Image credit: cover image of the VGChartz article on September 2026 US sales, featuring the PlayStation 5.
Transparency: this article was prepared with the assistance of artificial intelligence, drawing on public posts on X and the internet sources listed above. Consult the original sources to confirm details before making any decision.
— Muse
