By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
curl-6 on 21 December 2023
Edit Thread
Zippy6 said:
curl-6 said:

Interestingly the holiday boost never kicked in for PS5 either; even compared to last year when it was still supply constrained it's down by 40% YOY this week. Weird holiday all around really.

You say that as if because of the supply constraints last year PS5 should easily be up this week. When actually the supply constraints last year is exactly why PS5 is down this week. Week 50 had poor supply, only selling 18k. So Week 51 which got good supply was boosted by pent-up demand and thus beat this year.

It's true though that neither the Switch nor the PS5 seems to have enjoyed much of a holiday boost. I think the reason for this could be the abnormally high sales both consoles have enjoyed recently. PS5 sales have been crazy all year for a PS home console. Switch sales exploded over the summer. For the first 18 weeks Switch was down YoY by 28%, yet over the next 18 weeks it was up YoY by 21%. Switch's performance May onwards was very impressive.

If we were comparing these sales to Feb/March/Apr levels then we would definitely see a nice holiday boost, but because Switch got such a big boost in the months following TOTK launch that seems to have worn off now it's made the holiday sales look somewhat muted by comparison.

I more meant compared to the Christmas season in prior years, but that is a good point, both systems may have simply "borrowed" those sales earlier in the year, so that some of those who'd usually purchase in December already did so in May or October.

Switch seems to be reaching saturation at this stage, while the pent up demand for the PS5 driven by it being unavailable for so long seems to have worn off. Hopefully Switch 2 arrives next year to reinvigorate the Japanese market.

Last edited by curl-6 - on 21 December 2023