Circana: US PS5 and Xbox sales rose 14% in the week of the GTA 6 Extended Look

Circana analyst Mat Piscatella said US PS5 and Xbox Series hardware sales rose 14% in the week ending August 29, the week the GTA 6 Extended Look premiered on Netflix. GamesRadar+ reported his figures on September 10, 2026. The numbers are an analyst's reading of tracked sales, not something Rockstar, Sony or Microsoft said.

In the words GamesRadar+ quotes from Piscatella, combined PS5 and Xbox Series unit sales for that week "increased 14% versus the prior week." He said PlayStation grew 17% and Xbox Series X|S grew 9%.

The size of the jump is the part to read carefully. Piscatella noted that the combined increase "amounted to less than 8k units." A 14% rise that adds under 8,000 consoles suggests a fairly small weekly base in the US, but the coverage we read does not give the actual unit totals.

GamesRadar+ set the US figure beside UK data from NielsenIQ, passed on via The Game Business, showing UK console sales up 33% for PlayStation and 34% for Xbox. The two markets are measured by different firms, so the percentages are not a like-for-like comparison.

GamesRadar+ added its own view that the rise might have been bigger if consoles were cheaper, pointing to recent price increases for PS5 and Xbox hardware. That is the outlet's opinion, not a finding from Circana. Neither Sony nor Microsoft tied any sales change to GTA 6 in the coverage we read.

GTA 6 was due on November 19, 2026 for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Since then, on October 28, Circana published a separate figure: 29% of US console and PC gamers said they planned to buy the game.