--- title: I watched the gaming industry price itself out of the... description: Rising hardware and game prices are backfiring on the gaming industry. The Steam Deck's price hike from $549 to $789 reportedly caused an 82% drop in weekly... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/i-watched-the-gaming-industry-price-itself-out-of-the-market-and-indie-games-are-the-real-winners-ycorrhkw8 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: I watched the gaming industry price itself out of the market, and indie games are the real winners | daily.dev og:description: Rising hardware and game prices are backfiring on the gaming industry. The Steam Deck's price hike from $549 to $789 reportedly caused an 82% drop in weekly... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/i-watched-the-gaming-industry-price-itself-out-of-the-market-and-indie-games-are-the-real-winners-ycorrhkw8 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/ycOrRhKW8.png og:image:alt: I watched the gaming industry price itself out of the market, and indie games are the real winners og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # I watched the gaming industry price itself out of the market, and indie games are the real winners **[XDA Developers](https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers)** · 5 min read · 2 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Rising hardware and game prices are backfiring on the gaming industry. The Steam Deck's price hike from $549 to $789 reportedly caused an 82% drop in weekly units sold and a 72% drop in weekly revenue. The PS5 saw a 58% hardware sales decline after its price increase, the worst May sales since 2000. Meanwhile, indie games and free-to-play titles are thriving as gamers seek affordable alternatives to expensive AAA hardware and software. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How much did Steam Deck sales drop after Valve raised the price of the OLED model? Weekly units sold reportedly fell about 82%, from a range of 11,000-18,000 units to just 1,400-3,000 units, according to chart-position estimates from Boiling Steam. Weekly gross revenue dropped roughly 72%, from $6.0-10.0 million to $1.2-2.5 million, after the entry-level Steam Deck OLED price rose from $549 to $789. _Track how hardware pricing shifts ripple through gaming platforms and player behavior on daily.dev._ ### How much did PlayStation 5 hardware sales fall after Sony's price increase? PS5 hardware sales fell 58% the month after Sony raised the console's price, marking the worst May sales figures since 2000, according to IGN reporting. PS5-related spending also dropped 43% year-on-year, suggesting existing owners were spending less on the platform, not just fewer new buyers. _Gamers weighing console versus indie spending can follow pricing trend coverage on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Valve's price hike reportedly wipes out 82% of Steam Deck sales as it goes into "near-total collapse"](https://daily.dev/posts/valve-s-price-hike-reportedly-wipes-out-82-of-steam-deck-sales-as-it-goes-into-near-total-collapse-vndkio0qd) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The RAMageddon hits home \| Opinion](https://daily.dev/posts/the-ramageddon-hits-home-opinion-kuqt7ihpw) · GamesIndustry.biz · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Valve's Steam Deck price hike might be warning sign that the Steam Machine is DOA](https://daily.dev/posts/valve-s-steam-deck-price-hike-might-be-warning-sign-that-the-steam-machine-is-doa-8fr54inrl) · XDA Developers · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Steam Machine sticker shock and yet another Xbox price hike](https://daily.dev/posts/steam-machine-sticker-shock-and-yet-another-xbox-price-hike-ryrffsx34) · Game Developer · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#gaming](https://daily.dev/tags/gaming), [#sony](https://daily.dev/tags/sony), [#steam-deck](https://daily.dev/tags/steam-deck) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/i-watched-the-gaming-industry-price-itself-out-of-the-market-and-indie-games-are-the-real-winners-ycorrhkw8) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"I watched the gaming industry price itself out of the market, and indie games are the real winners","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-watched-the-gaming-industry-price-itself-out-of-the-market-and-indie-games-are-the-real-winners-ycorrhkw8","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-watched-the-gaming-industry-price-itself-out-of-the-market-and-indie-games-are-the-real-winners-ycorrhkw8"},"datePublished":"2026-08-09T20:34:14.423Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T20:33:30.398Z","description":"Rising hardware and game prices are backfiring on the gaming industry. 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