Console sales in the UK jumped by roughly a third in a single week, and there is one reason for it: the GTA 6 look on Netflix. The PlayStation 5 added 33 percent, Xbox Series 34. The game itself does not arrive until 19 November.
What actually happened
The numbers come from the research firm NielsenIQ and were published by The Game Business on 4 September. They cover UK retail and one week, the week Rockstar put the extended GTA 6 look on Netflix.
- PlayStation 5: up 33 percent against the previous week.
- Xbox Series X and S: up 34 percent. For a platform whose 2025 was its worst year on record in the country, that is an event.
- Nintendo Switch 2: up a third in the same week, despite having nothing to do with GTA 6. Most likely people were getting in ahead of the announced price rise.
Why it matters more than it looks
The UK console market sagged this summer: PS5 sales were falling and Xbox had its weakest year on record. Against that background, thirty percent in a week is not routine noise.
The cheer comes with a caveat, and Newzoo's Ronan Patrick supplied it. Adjusted for inflation the PlayStation 5 now costs 67 percent more than it did at launch, and Xbox consoles twice as much. The component shortage and expensive memory are pushing on the price of all hardware at once, and we see it in graphics cards: over the past week the RTX 5070 in Germany added forty euro.
We expect, because of GTA and Call of Duty, to see an uptick in the install base. Not as high as it would have been. Nothing particularly massive.
Ronan Patrick, Newzoo, speaking to The Game Business
What it means if you are buying
If you were about to buy a console for GTA 6, there is exactly one reason to hurry: the closer November gets, the smaller the chance of catching a calm price. Consoles do not go on sale in the run up to the biggest game of the year.
If you were waiting for the PC version, the wait will be long: it is not among the platforms on 19 November and has not been announced at all. And the game runs at thirty frames on console, as a reminder.
Sources
Sales figures: NielsenIQ, published by The Game Business on 4 September 2026, with the Newzoo comments relayed by Eurogamer.
GTA 6 release date and platforms: the official game page.
Graphics card prices: geizhals.de, lowest offer per model, captured 5 September 2026.
