After months of listening to analysts, industry experts and other developers talk about how monumental GTA 6 will be for the whole market, we just got our first tangible taste of this - and unfortunately it is sour. 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, but their predictions usually focused on the benefits the game will bring, rather than damage its absence will cause. 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 (a month when, due to pre-holiday shopping, number historically should soar) sales figures prove that millions of potential console buyers are indeed waiting, just as predicted. 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.
Industry analyst Piers Harding-Rolls from Ampere Analysis also warned that GTA 6's delay would have significant ripple effects, and the November numbers bear that out. We're curious to see how all of this will gel with the other big gaming market upheaval, specifically the hardware price hikes guaranteed impact memory specifically due to the bottomless hunger of datacenters.
The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S have been available for over five years. Under normal circumstances, these mid-generation years should see steady hardware adoption as prices drop, game libraries expand, and holdouts finally make the jump. Instead, the market has stagnated because there hasn't been that one must-have game that makes upgrading feel essential.
For millions of consumers, GTA 6 is that game. The problem is that it won't arrive for another year, and most would rather wait things out, even if it means looking at potentially higher prices for the PlayStation 5 Pro, a console that's believed to hold a significant edge over others in terms of GTA 6 gameplay due to a rumored partnership between Sony and Rockstar.
Sony had specifically expected GTA 6 to be the system-seller that would finally convince PS4 holdouts to upgrade, according to DFC Intelligence CEO David Cole talking to VGC. PlayStation senior vice president Eric Lempel even suggested that the console's best-selling game hasn't been released yet, clearly referring to GTA 6. The delay forced Sony to completely rethink its strategy for fiscal 2025.
The November 2025 console sales catastrophe proves GTA 6 has become a market-defining event. When Take-Two's Strauss Zelnick predicted that big titles sell consoles earlier this year, he was absolutely correct. The problem is that GTA 6's delay turned the entire industry on its head. Every publisher, platform holder, and industry analyst now understands that the next 11 months represent a waiting game. The market won't meaningfully recover until November 19, 2026, when GTA 6 finally arrives, and millions of waiting consumers simultaneously pull the trigger on console purchases they've been delaying for years.
In the meantime, Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online will have to do for GTA fans itching for a fix. Luckily, Rockstar has done a magnificent job with the A Safehouse in the Hills update, bringing back Michael De Santa and setting things up for a potential DLC.
