It only took a week. After Netflix aired « Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look » on August 27, 2026, PS5 sales jumped 33% in the UK. Xbox Series X|S sales rose 34%. The figures come from NielsenIQ (the firm that tracks UK hardware sales), passed to The Game Business and reported by VGC. More than 30 million people watched the video, according to that outlet. GTA 6 releases on November 19, 2026, on consoles pricier than they have ever been.
GTA 6’s Extended Look boosts PS5, Xbox and Switch 2 sales
In the UK, PS5 sales rose 33% in the week after the broadcast. Xbox Series X|S sales jumped 34%. The figure is confirmed separately by VGC, Pure Xbox and Notebookcheck. The Switch 2 also climbed by roughly a third, Notebookcheck notes (Abdul Haddi, September 3). A price increase likely played a role in that growth. VGC also notes that PlayStation and Rockstar ran a joint marketing push to sell more PS5 units alongside the game’s release.
Demand outstripped supply. The PS5 Pro sold out at several retailers. Resellers on eBay were asking as much as $1,500, according to Notebookcheck. VGC describes a widespread shortage of the standard PS5 model, with most retailers no longer stocking it.
Where these figures come from, and what they don’t cover
The figure comes from NielsenIQ, passed to trade outlet The Game Business. It tracks hardware sales week by week in the UK, on that market alone. It covers only the week following the August 27 broadcast. VGC puts the Extended Look’s views at more than 30 million. Pure Xbox, citing the same The Game Business report, gives a more precise figure, 31.1 million. A seven-day spike like this doesn’t prove a year-long trend, but it lines up exactly with the broadcast week.
The original report notes that only one PS5 Pro model remained available for direct purchase on Sony’s UK site. Nearly all third-party retailers were out of stock.
Consoles pricier than at launch
These figures land at a peculiar moment for the market. It was down 14.4% year-on-year at the end of July in the UK, dragged down by the PS5 (-32%). Xbox Series was already up 3.1% over the same period. In the US, VGC describes the industry’s worst July since the pandemic, caught between component shortages and cascading price hikes.
According to Circana (the firm that tracks US hardware prices), the average price paid for new gaming hardware there hit $502 in May. That’s 14% more than a year earlier, when it stood at $440. In August, the PS5 averaged $672, up 33% year-on-year. Xbox Series averaged $524 at the time, up 22%.
Newzoo analyst Ronan Patrick doesn’t think the frenzy will last. « The PS5 in inflation-adjusted terms is 67% more expensive [than at launch], and Xbox is twice as expensive, » he told The Game Business. He expects a slight rise in the installed base (the total number of consoles in circulation) thanks to GTA 6 and Call of Duty, but « nothing particularly massive. »
Pure Xbox sums up the situation in one blunt line, « even despite the price increases. » Players are buying in no matter what, ahead of the game’s release.
What GTA 6 will actually demand from the hardware
The excitement runs into a technical constraint known for months. On PS5 and Xbox Series, GTA 6 will run at 30 frames per second at launch, Rockstar confirmed in early September. The Extended Look aired on August 27 showcased the game’s scale, and our article on what the video actually showed covers it in detail.
No PC version has been announced so far, notes Pure Xbox. It’s almost certainly not landing in 2026. Console remains the only route into the game at launch, which partly explains the rush to gear up before November 19.
What’s still unclear before November 19
Ronan Patrick doubts the surge will permanently change the size of the installed base. He points out that most play time happens on older titles. He compares the situation to the graphics card shortage of 2020 and 2021. Back then too, player engagement and spending didn’t shift, only the split of that spending changed, tilting toward software rather than hardware.
Pure Xbox hopes similar figures will soon emerge in other regions, though it has no data to confirm that yet. None of the three sources gives figures for France, the rest of Europe, or sales of the game itself. GTA 6 is set to release on November 19, 2026, on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Rockstar promises a game without microtransactions or generative AI.
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