Stagnation is a factor, but it began a while ago. The PS style consoles peaked with the PS2, and hardware has been in decline ever since. The PS3 generation was still mainly the PS2 generation for a few years, so the stagnation didn’t really begin until about 2010 or so.
Another factor is cannibalization. New games on those platforms are getting released for free with a subscription. Players don’t really need to buy as many games anymore. This kills off sales.
A third factor is that we’re in the late generation, and the PS5 style consoles have been mostly lacklustre without many exciting experiences, which (speaking from experience as a lifelong Nintendo fan) seems to always result in low late gen software sales (like Wii U, GC, and N64) rather than high late gen sales as we saw on NES, SNES, Wii, and Switch. Granted, PS5 isn’t going to be as extreme as that, but relative to the PS systems, it’s enough to see the lowness of the late gen.
I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.
