PS5 game sales are falling due to $70 price tag

The PlayStation 5 is certainly dominating the console market at the moment, selling over 32 million units. Despite this, PS5 game sales are actually falling, with the latest $70 price tag to blame.

Recent data from Sony revealed 2022 was its best-ever year for total earnings, raking in an impressive $27 billion in total revenue, with console sales contributing to the majority of their success. However, the data also reveals that gamers are spending less on games for their shiny new systems.

In total, 264.2 million PlayStation games, both digital and physical, were sold in 2022, which is a drop of 39 million from the previous year. It’s speculated that the reason for this drop is the price increase for the latest PS5 games.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is Sony's next major pricey exclusive.

This doesn’t necessarily mean players are stopping themselves from buying games, but they’re certainly being more selective in the games they do buy. The $70 titles, many of which are exclusive to PlayStation, are still popular, but gamers who shell out for them are less likely to buy third-party titles, whose sales have reportedly dropped by 38.6 million.

The $70 price tag has actually caused a lot of controversy amongst gamers, who feel it’s unfair to keep raising the price of games, especially when the released product is in an unfinished or poorly optimised state. Recent examples are EA’s Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and Bethesda’s Redfall, which both released with performance issues and bugs for $70 (the latter was admittedly an Xbox release).

This reluctance to buy additional games also stems from the variety of add-on content also available for games, with many games releasing with DLC, microtransactions, and tier-passes. Subscription services are also a consideration, with PlayStation Plus being a prime example for having several tiers to choose from, with additional perks and benefits coming with higher-priced tiers.

All data suggests that the price increase to $70 is negatively affecting the number of games sold on PlayStation platforms, though it’s unlikely we’ll see that price-point decrease anytime soon, if ever. It’ll be interesting to see how sales change later this year, following the release of major titles such as Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and Final Fantasy: Rebirth.