Between January and April 2024, Russia saw a notable rise in game console sales, with a 70% increase over the same period a year earlier. This trend comes from a report by Izvestia that cites figures from M.Video-Eldorado, one of the country’s leading electronics retailers.
Since the start of the year, total console sales have reached about 580,000 units. If the current pace holds, M.Video-Eldorado expects yearly sales to surpass 40 billion rubles, a figure that would set a new high in recent years. For context, the peak market volume last year stood at around 24 billion rubles.
2024’s top-selling titles include GTA V Premium Edition, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Mortal Kombat 11. Industry experts point to several factors behind the surge in console demand: falling prices, a broader range of models, and stronger in-store and online availability across various retailers.
Elaborating on the broader electronics market, Eldar Murtazin, a prominent analyst with Mobile Research Group, notes that Russia is experiencing rising interest not only in game consoles but also in smartphones, tablets, televisions, and related devices. He attributes this uptick to improved affordability across many product categories as wage growth in certain sectors supports higher consumer spending power.
Earlier discussions about tech affordability in Russia highlighted how budget-conscious consumers respond to price shifts and product variety. A recent example involved testing an older graphics card from 2016 in modern game environments, illustrating how hardware backward compatibility and price-to-performance considerations continue to influence buying choices in the tech ecosystem.