UK PS5 and Xbox sales rose by a third after the GTA 6 Extended Look, Nielsen data shows

UK PS5 sales rose 33% and Xbox Series S and X sales rose 34% in the week after the GTA 6 Extended Look, according to Nielsen data that Video Games Chronicle reported on September 3. VGC said the figures were supplied to The Game Business. The report carried no comment from Rockstar, Sony or Microsoft.

The Extended Look premiered on Netflix, and VGC said more than 30 million people watched it. In VGC's view, that seemed to have helped cause PS5 sellouts at many retailers, a lot of which had no consoles in stock. The link between the video and the sales is VGC's reading, not something the data itself proves.

The report gives percentages only. It does not say how many consoles were sold, so a third more could be a small or large number. The article's web address says sales "tripled", but its headline and text give a rise of about a third, and those are the figures we use.

The jump comes against a weak backdrop. VGC said UK hardware sales were down 14.4% year on year, largely because PS5 sales were down 32%, while Xbox Series S and X sales were up 3.1%. In the US, it said, consoles had their weakest July since the pandemic, partly because of supply constraints and large price rises. Circana put the average price paid for a US console at $502 in May, up 14% from $440 a year earlier.

Newzoo's Ronan Patrick told The Game Business he expects an uptick in the install base because of GTA and Call of Duty, "but nothing particularly massive." He pointed to prices: in his words, the PS5 is 67% more expensive in inflation-adjusted terms than at launch.

GTA 6 was set to launch on November 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.