A nightmare November for video game console sales, as the big three all drop in the U.S.
PLUS: Netflix is bringing back FIFA video games, and I got a look at the updated Animal Crossing
Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo all sold fewer consoles in the U.S. this November than in November 2024, according to sales tracking firm Circana, which published a bleak market update today.
Spending on gaming hardware for the month totaled $695 million, a 27% drop from the November 2024 total of $949 million.
It was the worst dollar amount for a November since 2005, Circana said.
The amount of actual consoles sold during the key holiday shopping month was even worse: the 1.6 million unit total amounted to the lowest reported by Circana (formerly NPD) since 1995’s 1.4 million. We’re talking about the era of the Switch 2, Xbox Series and PS5 vs. the era of the Super Nintendo, Sega Saturn and original PlayStation.1
The dire November 2025 console numbers weren’t a case of just one console struggling. The news wasn’t hot for any of them.
Circana analyst Mat Piscatella broke things down for Game File (this is all in terms of units sold):
“Xbox Series unit sales were down over 70% compared to last November.
“PS5 down over 40%…
“…and Switch + Switch 2 [were] down more than 10% compared to Switch a year ago.”
That’s right. Circana’s data shows that even Nintendo, which launched the seemingly red-hot Switch 2 in June, went on to sell fewer Switch 1s and Switch 2s (combined) this November than they sold Switch 1s last November.
At least in Nintendo’s case, a big factor may be that they sold a lot of Switch 2s since the system’s June 2 launch: a whopping 10 million units in the system’s first fourth months.
But November was bad. Why?
“I certainly don’t have all the answers here, but pricing seems to be one of the potential influencers,” Piscatella said.
The average price of a console from the big three this November was $439, some 11% higher than a year ago, Piscatella noted.
With price, however, there is also some added nuance. Thanks in part to price promotions, PS5 was not actually more expensive this November vs. last year, Piscatella said. But Xbox Series was 30% more expensive. And Nintendo Switch/Switch 2 console prices were up 70%, due to the newer device’s higher price.
Piscatella noted that one piece of gaming hardware wasn’t down from last November. That’s be the NEX Playground, a box for motion control games that was so hot this Black Friday that Circana says it outsold the Xbox. The NEX costs $250.
A year of sticker shock
It’s been a costly year to go shopping for a video game console.
In October, Game File noted that Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft had just issued eight price hikes in six months, including two increases for Xbox Series hardware and one for the original Switch.
Those increases followed the Trump administration’s April announcement of tariffs on China and Vietnam, where many game consoles are manufactured.
Tariffs were stiffer on China than Vietnam, causing a rapid manufacturing shift to the latter country, according to a richly detailed Bloomberg report (I bolded part of this for added moritifcation):
China’s once-dominant share of US video game console imports fell from 86% in 2024 to less than 5% since May, after Trump levied particularly punishing tariffs on the country…
While electronics like smartphones were exempted from Trump’s 2025 levies, gaming equipment was not so lucky. In May, importers of Chinese-made video game consoles were hit with an average tariff rate of 88%, which later dropped to about 30%. Meanwhile, tariff rates on Vietnamese imports hovered around 10% or less. In all, the US government estimates that it earned at least $325 million in tariffs on consoles and similar goods between February and August.
Even with the shift of manufacturing to Vietnam, console makers are facing other pressures that could keep prices high for console customers. A late-year rise in the cost of memory chips has sent Nintendo’s stock price tumbling, as investors fear slimmer profit margins and analysts anticipate price hikes on electronics beyond gaming.
As for the new video games of November, Circana had Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 as the highest-grossing game of the month, followed by October’s Battlefield 6. That Battlefield game is ahead in year-to-date sales.
Item 2: In brief…
⚽️ Netflix will release an exclusive new FIFA simulation football/soccer game this summer, the company announced today.
Consistent with Netflix’s recent expansion beyond mobile games, the new FIFA title will stream to TVs, with users’ phones serving as controllers. It can be played solo or online with others, per Netflix’s announcement.
The biggest mystery: Just who is making it? Netflix’s announcement says the game will be developed and published by Delphi Interactive, a small California-headquartered company that facilitated the rights for Io Interactive’s upcoming James Bond game—but has not directly developed and released games.
🧙 Hogwarts Legacy, released inn 2023, has now sold 40 million copies, WB Games announced today.
Item 3: Animal Crossing’s January upgrade
Last month, Nintendo showed off two upcoming updates to its 2020 Switch hit Animal Crossing: New Horizons (the defining comfort game of the Covid 19 pandemic lockdowns).
On January 15, a free 3.0 update is slated for all owners of the game. And Switch 2 owners can buy an additional $5 booster.
Last week, I got an online demonstration of what’s new.
The demo didn’t deliver any big surprises, but provided some helpful clarifications.
The Switch 2 upgrade offers higher-resolution graphics (hard to discern during an online stream), an in-game megaphone for summoning animal pals to hang out (this necessitated repeated calls for the pal when demoed), and the ability to use the Joy-Con 2 controller’s mouse controls to drag, drop and select items while decorating homes and drawing designs (Nintendo demoed this with a right Joy-Con 2. As a lefty, I asked if it’d support the left Joy-Con and was told I’d need to just put the right one in my left hand. Still, this looked like the best feature of the pack).
The 3.0 update for all Switch owners introduces a hotel with rooms you can design, new Zelda and Splatoon-themed items you can unlock with Amiibos, free Lego-themed furniture, and collectible retro Nintendo hardware that will each play classic games (one classic game per retro hardware item, I was told). There will also be “slumber islands,” where players can meet online to sculpt custom islands (These days, I see a lot of games through the filter of wanting to play them alongside my kids, but these slumber islands are only for online, not local co-op).
The updates add a lot to a game that Nintendo had seemingly left behind since its 2021 2.0 patch. Animal Crossing isn’t really my thing, but, hey, maybe they’ll get around to a Switch 2 upgrade for Sushi Striker or… how about one for Part Time UFO?
If you want to get a feel for how very, very long ago 1995 was, here’s NPD’s top 11 best-selling games for that year:
Mortal Kombat III
Donkey Kong Country
NBA Jam Tournament Edition
Madden NFL 96
Killer Instinct
Mortal Kombat II
Lion King
Yoshi’s Island
Donkey Kong Country 2
NBA Live 96
Myst
Good god, that list of '95 bestsellers takes me back. Three fighting games and four platformers!
I took a quick glance at the various charts available for 2024 (since the 2025 charts aren't done yet). Death, taxes and sports games making the top 10 are the only constants in the universe, it seems.
The irony of the top games in 1995 are probably all the physical games I purchased on whatnot in November 2025 for my new Analogue 3D.