How often does a console game go on sale, and how big is the cut? We check every game's price on the PlayStation Store, the Xbox Store and the Nintendo eShop about once a week, so we counted.
About one game in five on PlayStation was on sale
| Store | Games priced | On sale | Share | Average cut |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PlayStation Store | 4,516 | 971 | 21.5% | 67% |
| Nintendo eShop | 19,404 | 3,311 | 17.1% | 61% |
| Xbox Store | 5,500 | 561 | 10.2% | 70% |
Xbox had the fewest games on sale, but its sales were the deepest on average.
Most sales were half off or more
Small discounts were rare. Of the games on sale, 89% on PlayStation (863 of 971), 90% on Xbox (507 of 561) and 78% on the eShop (2,573 of 3,311) were at least 50% off.
| Store | Under 25% | 25 to 49% | 50 to 74% | 75% or more |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PlayStation Store | 14 | 94 | 417 | 446 |
| Nintendo eShop | 146 | 592 | 1,534 | 1,039 |
| Xbox Store | 18 | 36 | 219 | 288 |
From one week to the next, most prices didn't move
We compared each game's price with its previous check, 13 October to 6 November 2026. Most of the time the price was the same. When it dropped, it dropped a lot: by about two thirds on average, or around £12.
| Store | Checks compared | Same price | Dropped | Rose | Average drop |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PlayStation Store | 9,056 | 78.7% | 10.4% | 10.9% | 66% (£12.63) |
| Nintendo eShop | 11,339 | 78.7% | 11.1% | 10.2% | 61% (£11.90) |
| Xbox Store | 10,610 | 89.8% | 6.2% | 4.0% | 69% (£12.01) |
Rises were almost as common as drops on PlayStation and the eShop, and they were sales ending: of the 2,553 rises we could compare with the store's usual price, 2,548 put the game back at that usual price.
Some well-known games on sale
| Game | Store | Usual | Sale | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deathloop | PlayStation | £59.99 | £11.99 | 30 Oct |
| Silent Hill 2 | PlayStation | £59.99 | £16.79 | 5 Nov |
| Persona 5 | PlayStation | £49.99 | £7.49 | 6 Nov |
| Alan Wake 2 | Xbox | £49.99 | £14.99 | 5 Nov |
| Kingdom Come: Deliverance II | Xbox | £59.99 | £20.99 | 5 Nov |
| Hogwarts Legacy | Nintendo eShop | £49.99 | £4.99 | 5 Nov |
| Mortal Kombat 11 | Nintendo eShop | £39.99 | £3.99 | 6 Nov |
What this means if you buy games
A console store sale is usually a big one, so if a game isn't urgent, waiting tends to pay. But in any one week most games aren't on sale, and on Xbox only about one in ten was. Each game's page shows its prices, the lowest we've recorded, and the physical copies in shops, and can email you when the price drops.
How we counted
We used the price each store showed for the product we match to each game, and the store's own usual price to decide whether a game was on sale. Free games and games with no usual price were left out. Our checks run about once a week per game, so a short sale that started and ended between two checks is not counted, and the share of games ever on sale is higher than the share on sale at any one check.
Using these figures
You are welcome to quote these figures or reuse the chart. Please credit GameShelfClub and link to this page. For questions about the data, use the contact details on our about page.