The video game console market just experienced its worst November in nearly three decades, and the culprit isn't hard to identify: Grand Theft Auto 6's delay to late 2026.
According to new data from market research firm Circana for the week ending December 6, 2025, Xbox Series X and S console sales have collapsed by a staggering 70% year-over-year, while PlayStation 5 sales fell more than 40%. Even the relatively resilient Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 combined saw sales decline by approximately 10%.
November 2025 now holds the dubious distinction of recording the weakest hardware unit sales for any November since 1995, a time when Grand Theft Auto wasn't even released yet, and the first PlayStation was barely a year old.
The numbers paint a grim picture. Total hardware spending dropped 27% year-over-year to just $695 million, with only 1.6 million console units sold across all platforms during what's typically the industry's most lucrative month.
The irony is that industry leaders saw this coming from miles away. Back in February 2025, when GTA 6 was still scheduled for a fall release, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick told IGN that big titles historically sell consoles, and he was optimistic about 2025's prospects.
Those tragic predictions proved true, albeit not in the way anyone hoped. When Rockstar officially delayed GTA 6 from Fall 2025 to May 2026, and then delayed it again to November 19, 2026, the anticipated console sales boost evaporated. Instead of driving millions of console purchases, the absence of GTA 6 created a vacuum that no other game could fill.
Analytics firm Ampere Analysis quantified the damage. According to their projections, the GTA 6 delay would result in approximately 700,000 fewer PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series console sales than previously expected. Game sales projections were slashed by 21 million units, translating to a massive $2.7 billion reduction in anticipated revenue for the console market in 2025 alone.
The November 2025 sales figures prove that millions of potential console buyers are indeed waiting, just as predicted. But instead of driving a sales surge, GTA 6's delay has created a waiting game where consumers simply refuse to invest in new hardware until the game actually arrives.
