The price of being a gamer

How much money would you have to pay for a PS5 and Xbox Series X — game consoles of the latest generation? How different are the prices in various countries? And where in the world is being a gamer the cheapest? Picodi.com analysts looked into the prices of the latest video game consoles and subscriptions of the two most popular platforms to answer these questions.

More than 1,000 for a console

For the comparison, we chose 9th generation flagship consoles of two competing platforms: Sony Playstation 5 (Blu-ray disc drive) and Xbox Series X.

PlayStation fans in Ukraine have to cough up the most money with online stores selling the latest Sony console for as much as 11 990 kr. On the other hand, the new Xbox is the most expensive in Argentina — 10 970 kr.

The best price for both consoles can be found in Canada where the PlayStation 5 costs 4 170 kr and the Xbox Series X costs 3 970 kr.

In Sweden, as in many other countries, Xbox has the similar price as PlayStation. For the latest Sony and Xbox consoles Swedish gamers would have to pay 5 990 and 5 700 kr respectively. Slightly lower prices can be found in Switzerland, where the PS5 and the Xbox Series X cost around 4 760 kr.

A gaming console is not enough

Both Sony and Microsoft offer subscriptions which allow multiplayer mode — PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Gold. Subscribers also get several games for free each month. Similar to video games console prices, the costs of subscriptions vary depending on the country.

In the comparison of yearly subscription prices, Turkey placed first with both Xbox Live Gold (320 kr) and PlayStation Plus (190 kr) being the cheapest.

At the far end of the ranking is Switzerland where a one year Xbox Live Gold subscription costs 950 kr, and PS Plus: 670 kr. As the companies declare, subscription prices reflect the local market economies.

In Sweden, the cost of Xbox Live Gold and PS Plus subscriptions are 880 kr and 620 kr respectively. It is not as much as the Swiss pay, but still, it is three times more than Turkish gamers.

Note: Microsoft stopped selling 12-month Xbox Live Gold subscriptions which is why in this comparison, we multiplied costs of 3-month subscriptions by 4.

Summary of costs

Which country is the best place for a gamer? We compared sets which consist of the costs of a video game console and the respective yearly subscription.

For video game fans, Canada is the perfect place. Low costs of gaming consoles and cheap yearly subscriptions provide affordable prices for both sets — 4 630 kr for PlayStation and 4 760 kr for Xbox. Sweden found itself in the middle of the ranking, with 6 610 kr for a PlayStation set and 6 580 kr for an Xbox set.

One thing is sure: being a gamer costs an arm and a leg in Argentina, as PlayStation and Xbox sets cost 11 300 kr and 11 670 respectively. The only country where the PlayStation set is more expensive is Ukraine — 12 390 kr.

Methodology

This report is based on the local prices of video game consoles: the PlayStation 5 Standard and the Xbox Series X with one gamepad and without any games. Subscription prices come from the official websites of PlayStation and Xbox. For the currency conversion, we used the average exchange rate as of November 2020.

Public Use

Feel free to use the data and infographics from the report for both commercial and non-commercial purposes as long as you indicate the author of the research (Picodi.com) with a link to this subpage. If you have any questions, please contact us: research@picodi.com.