The Gaming Brief:
- Circana’s Mat Piscatella says September was the lowest September ever for Xbox Series consoles, down 27% in units year over year
- He sees no noticeable positive impact from GTA VI’s August Extended Look reveal on Xbox hardware
- PS5 got a lift, which Piscatella roughly splits as 70% Marvel’s Wolverine and 30% GTA VI, while calling the numbers “squishy”
- GTA VI launches November 19 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S
GTA VI is coming to Xbox Series X|S, but console buyers haven’t followed. In a GamesBeat interview, Circana analyst Mat Piscatella said September was the lowest September ever for Xbox Series hardware, with units 27% below last year.
He saw no noticeable positive impact on Xbox from GTA VI’s Extended Look reveal. PS5, by contrast, got a lift. With the game launching November 19, the data shows where console demand is going first.
Circana’s Mat Piscatella Sees a PS5 Lift, Not an Xbox Lift
According to Beebom, the Extended Look reveal on Netflix in August 2026 helped drive a noticeable PS5 uptick.
Piscatella said Marvel’s Wolverine had a much bigger effect, estimating roughly 70% of the lift came from Wolverine and 30% from GTA VI.
He called those squishy numbers and described his conclusion as a gut read, adding that individual factors are hard to separate.
PS5 revenue reportedly rose 43% in the US last month. That’s a revenue figure for PS5 and a unit figure for Xbox, so the two percentages aren’t directly comparable.
Pre-Orders and Marketing Tilt Toward PlayStation
GTA VI pre-orders show PS5 far ahead of Xbox Series X|S, and Tech4Gamers cites a six-to-one pre-order split favoring PS5.
Beebom adds that the GTA VI launch trailer carries a “Plays Best on PS5” promotion. Sony has also unveiled limited-edition GTA VI DualSense controllers, which is part of why PlayStation has been the visible face of the launch.
Xbox’s Record Claims and Production Plans Measure Something Different
Piscatella’s read sits against a recent Xbox statement that GTA VI pre-orders were breaking records on Xbox.
Those two claims don’t measure the same thing: one is game pre-orders on Xbox, the other is September console sales. Both can be true at once.
Tech4Gamers reports Microsoft has been ramping Xbox Series console production ahead of the launch.
It also notes Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick promised GTA VI would drive current-gen console sales, reaffirming a console-first priority despite PC’s growing importance, though so far the hardware lift favors Sony alone.
The Xbox Series X|S data covers September alone, a month before launch, so what happens in November is still unknown.
Source: Circana’s Mat Piscatella: ‘Not everyone wants to play GTA’
