”GTA 6′ demand could trigger a PS5 shortage later in 2026, with pre-orders for the game reportedly outselling Xbox Series X by six to one ahead of its November launch.
The six-to-one figure, as reported by Vice, points to a console market that is tilting hard toward Sony just as supply gets tight.
Both Sony and Microsoft have confirmed that console shortages are likely in the back half of 2026, blamed on hardware component constraints.
Why ‘GTA 6’ could cause a PS5 shortage
The maths is brutal for anyone hoping to grab a console late this year. Rockstar’s game is the kind of release that pulls lapsed players back and convinces newcomers to buy hardware just to run it, and a six-to-one pre-order split shows where most of them are landing.
We have seen this movie before. The PS5 spent its first two years as a near-mythical object thanks to pandemic-era component shortages, with stock vanishing minutes after it appeared online.
A blockbuster of GTA‘s scale arriving during another supply squeeze is the worst possible timing for patient shoppers.
Stack that surge on top of an already strained supply chain and you get the textbook recipe for empty shelves.
Retailers have warned that demand could outrun available stock through the launch window, which is exactly the scenario that turned previous big releases into scalper season.
‘GTA 6’ pre-orders are already selling out
The frenzy is not theoretical. A code-in-a-box version of GTA 6, which ships without a disc and just hands you a download code, reportedly sold out on Amazon in under five hours.
That is people paying full price for a cardboard box with a slip of paper inside.
The Xbox side of the split is its own talking point. A six-to-one gap does not mean Series X is failing, but it does suggest most GTA hype is funnelling toward PlayStation, which only sharpens the pressure on Sony’s supply and leaves Microsoft as the quieter fallback option.
There was also a wrinkle on the leak front. An Amazon Brazil listing appeared to surface fresh gameplay details, though it has not been confirmed whether those came from Rockstar or were added by someone else, so treat the specifics as unverified for now.
The real test comes when GTA 6 lands in November and the pre-order crowd collides with whatever stock Sony can actually ship.
If the shortage warnings hold, the smart move is locking in a console and a copy early, because waiting until launch week could mean waiting a lot longer.
