Cyber Monday Video Game Prices Reveal Weight Of Trump Tariffs

Bargain-hunting gamers will likely be disappointed by meager Cyber Monday discounts, revealing how President Donald Trump’s tariffs are influencing what gets wrapped up and placed beneath Christmas trees.

Retailers often charge top dollar for the latest, in-demand consoles like Sony Group Corp.’s PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Co.’s Switch 2, but bargain hunters would usually find Cyber Monday deals on older models, said Kristin McGrath, senior editor at the deal-hunting website the Krazy Coupon Lady. That’s not happening this year. For instance, the Switch OLED model released in 2021 is selling at full retail price with a free game download replacing a discount, she said.

Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft Corp. all warned they’d be raising the prices on gaming consoles this year, but there had been hope for holiday discounting. “To see older models selling at full price is unexpected,” McGrath said. “We just aren’t seeing strong gaming deals.”

The holiday shopping season so far is swirling in mixed signals. The National Retail Federation earlier this month forecast spending in November and December would increase as much as 4.2% from a year earlier to reach $1.02 trillion. That would be a slight slowdown from last year’s spending growth of 4.3%. But US consumer confidence in November took its deepest dive in seven months due to a shaky labor market and concerns about the 43-day government shutdown. Black Friday shoppers were largely underwhelmed by scant discounts.

Cyber Monday is once again expected to be the biggest online shopping day of the year in the US, with consumers spending $14.2 billion, an increase of 6.3% from a year earlier, according to Adobe Inc. It’s also the best day of the year to buy electronics, with discounts averaging 30%, according to Adobe. Discounts for things like headphones, robot vacuums and fitness trackers are on par with previous years, which could be due to importers shipping in extra inventory to preempt the tariffs.

This is the first holiday shopping season since Trump announced sweeping tariffs in April on dozens of countries, sending shockwaves through the global supply chain and prompting ongoing negotiations with China, a major exporter to the US. It can take as long as a year for tariffs to show up in consumer price hikes, but there are already signs holiday shoppers are likely spending more and getting less. Order volumes on Thanksgiving dropped 2% from a year ago while the average price of items ordered was up 8%, according to Salesforce Inc.

Popular gift items such as toys and electronics are exposed to tariffs since they are largely sourced from other countries, including China. 

“We’re seeing tariffs drive costs higher for holiday shoppers in key discretionary spend areas like toys and electronics,” said Caila Schwartz, Salesforce’s director of consumer insights. “While the higher-income consumer leans heavily into furniture, luxury, and other high-value gifting categories, the average income consumer is being priced out of these traditional gifting segments.”