August 2025 Circana (NPD) covers the four-week period from August 2 to 29 and will be released on October 8 around 6:00 am PT / 9:00 am ET / 2:00 pm UK.

Since Circana (NPD) leaks don't happen nearly as often as it used to and hardware revenue is something we do get, be sure to include revenue in your predictions.

Feel free to also predict what you think the top software games will be for the month.

Example prediction:

[Total Hardware Revenue]

1. [#1 selling console] XXX,000
2. [#2 selling console] XXX,000
3. [#3 selling console] XXX,000
4. [#4 selling console] XXX,000

VGChartz US estimates for August 2025:

1. NS2 - 309K
2. PS5 - 191K
3. XS - 86K
4. NS - 76K

VGChartz US estimates for July 2026:

1. NS2 - 227K
2. PS5 - 168K
3. XS - 53K
4. NS - 30K

Possible impact on hardware sales:

• XS - $100 to $150 price hike on August 1
• NS2 - $50 price hike on September 1 (People buying before increase)
• PS5+XS - GTA6 pre-orders / gameplay reveal

Upcoming release dates for Circana reports:

• August (8.2-8.29) - Oct 8
• September (8.30-10.3) - Oct 22
• October (10.4-10.31) - Nov 19
• November (11.1-11.28) - Dec 17
• December (11.29-1.2.27) - Jan 21, 2027

RESULTS:

https://www.vgchartz.com/article/469285/switch-2-best-seller-in-the-us-in-august-2026-nba-2k27-top-selling-game/

Switch 2 Best-Seller in the US in August 2026, NBA 2K27 Top Selling Game

The Nintendo Switch 2 was the best-selling console in the US for August 2026 in terms of units sold and dollar sales, according to figures from Circana (formerly The NPD Group). Circana includes the dates for the four-week period of August 2 to 29.

The PlayStation 5 came in second place in terms of both units sold and dollar sales. The Xbox Series X|S took third place, followed by the Nintendo Switch in fourth place. The Nintendo Switch 2 is the best-selling console in 2026 year-to-date, followed by the PlayStation 5 in second place.

PlayStation 5 unit sales are down 11 percent year-on-year, while Xbox Series X|S unit sales are down 31 percent. Nintendo combined sales are down 15 percent.

PlayStation 5 dollar sales increased 17 percent when compared to a year ago, despite a drop in unit sales. There was a 13 percent spending drop across the Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2.

There was a total of 559,000 consoles sold for the month of August. This is the lowest for any August since 423,000 consoles were sold in August 2013.

The average price paid for a new console in the US reached a record for the month of August at $541. The previous August record was $476 set last year.

Overall spending on video games in August decreased nine percent year-on-year from $4.67 billion to $4.26 billion. Spending on video game content was down 10 percent from $4.18 billion to $3.78 billion, while video game hardware sales decreased three percent from $312 million to $302 million. Spending on accessories increased three percent from $171 million to $176 million.

In terms of 2026 total sales, overall spending on video games is down three percent year-on-year from $37.44 billion to $36.28 billion. Spending on video game content is down two percent from $32.95 billion to $32.16 billion, while video game hardware sales dropped 11 percent from $2.86 billion to $2.54 billion. Spending on accessories is down four percent from $1646 billion to $1.58 billion.

"US video game projected total spending across content, hardware and accessories dipped 9% in August when compared to a year ago, to $4.3 billion," said Piscatella.

He added, "Mobile was the primary driver of the overall August spending decline, falling 18% vs YA (mobile spending provided by Sensor Tower). Console content spend declined by 7%, PC content increased by 13%, and subscription grew 3%."

There were six new releases in the top 10 best-sellers list with NBA 2K27 debuting in first place for the month of August. It is already the third best-selling game of 2026 yea to date. It released in Early Access on August 26.

Madden NFL 27 debuted in second place, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls debuted in third place, The Kickoff Bundle (2026) debuted in fourth place, Star Wars: Zero Company debuted in fifth place, Big Walk debuted in eighth place.

Elden Ring jumped up from 41st to seventh place due to the release of the Nintendo Switch 2 version.

Here are the top 10 best-selling games in terms of dollars for August 2026:

Here are the top 10 best-selling games in August year-to-date:

US sales data from Circana's Mat Piscatella for last week of August:

In the US, combined PS5/XBS hardware unit sales for the week ending Aug 29 increased 14% versus the prior week. PS5 grew 17%, XBS 9%. The combined increase across both platforms amounted to less than 8k units. Source: Circana Retail Tracking Service.

Post by @matpiscatella.bsky.social — Bluesky

• NS2 - 250K
• PS5 - 200K
• XS - 40K
• NS - 30K

NS2 - 248K
PS5 - 170K
XS - 41K
NS - 22K

So odd we are gonna get to reports 2 weeks apart in October

Mat Piscatella from Circana said they are upgraded stuff.

"Service upgrade. Enhancements to accessories reporting, new platform and generation classifications, and new reporting for emerging game distribution formats including code in box and game key cards. Doing that and applying it to 31 years of history takes a lot of fingers and toes to count."

Post by @matpiscatella.bsky.social — Bluesky

Safe to say that over 7k if not 7.5k of these GTA boosted sales are from PS5. We can actually extrapolate the previous week from that,

If 17% represents a 7k increase, the previous week saw PS5 selling 41k~ (vs 48k~)
If 9% represents a 1k increase, the previous week saw Xbox selling 11k~ (vs 12k~)

I'm gonna guess:

Switch 2: 270k
PS5: 190k
Xbox: 35k

Updated guess:

PS5: 175k

Xbox: 45k

I ran the math given the % changes Mat gave and Xbox performed much better than that. Your PS5 is close. Main thing to keep note is combined they are up 14% week-on-week (13.5%-14.4% with Mat rounding). PS5 is up 17% and XS is up 9% WoW.

Week ending August 22:

• PS5 is 36.7K-38K 
• XS is 16.8K-18.4K

Week ending August 29:

• PS5 is 42.9K-44.5K
• XS is 18.3K-20.1K

This gives combined PS5 and XS sales up 14.4% WoW. XS sales being lower than what I have brings the combined sales to 14.5% or higher as PS5 is up more than the average between the 2.

From what I've seen XS was supply constrained in July and in the first 2 weeks of August. Before there was new stock that caused a bump the last 2 weeks of the month. So XS sales the first 2 weeks are likely 8K-15K combined. But we shall see what the Circana report has as they get hardware data from like 99% of the market.

For those wondering with the limited data we do have and what Mat gave us puts rough estimates around:

• PS5 - 140K-170K
• XS - 43K-55K

This is just very rough preliminary estimates. Which is why we always wait for the Circana report so the initial estimates we do post for the Americas are more accurate. We don't have enough data for NS2 or NS1 to give any rough estimates.

PS5 - 140K-170K

XS - 43K-55K

170K seems like the low end for PS5 and 43k for XS seems like the high end for Xbox.

140k for PS5 would be a 20% YOY drop

43k for Xbox would be less than 10% drop.

I'm guessing something like this:

NS2 - 255K
PS5 - 180K
XS - 38K
NS - 24K