How Much Did the PS5 Cost at Launch in 2020?
By the Price Time Machine team · Updated
The PS5 launch price was $499.99 when Sony’s PlayStation 5 went on sale in the United States on November 12, 2020. The Digital Edition, with no disc drive, cost $399.99. Adjusted for inflation, $499.99 is about $647.38 in September 2026 money.
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PlayStation 5 (PS5) at a glance
- US launch price
- $499.99
- In today’s money
- ≈ $647.38November 2020 to September 2026 (CPI-U, BLS)
- US release date
- November 12, 2020
- Where it was designed
- Tokyo, JapanDeveloped by Sony Interactive Entertainment in Tokyo, Japan.
- Category
- Gaming & tech
- Price source
- sonyinteractive.com
Today’s price is the US launch price adjusted for US inflation with the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, comparing the launch month with the latest published month. It updates automatically as new figures come out.
Two prices, one console
Sony revealed the prices in an online showcase on September 16, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The standard PS5 with an Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive cost $499.99. The Digital Edition cost $399.99: the same console inside, without the disc drive, so every game had to be downloaded.
Pre-orders were chaotic. Sony said they would open the next day, but some shops started taking orders that same evening and sold out within minutes. Sony later apologised to fans.
The PS5 launch price in today’s money
Inflation means a dollar buys less today than it did in 2020. Using the US Consumer Price Index, the PS5 launch price of $499.99 works out at about $647.38 in September 2026 money, around 1.3 times the original figure. That is what the same amount of spending power would cost now, not what a PS5 sells for second-hand.
Why the PS5 got more expensive
Games consoles normally get cheaper as they get older. The PS5 went the other way. A worldwide shortage of computer chips meant that for more than a year after launch, consoles sold out within minutes and resellers charged far more than $499.99.
Then, in August 2025, Sony raised the US price of the standard PS5 by $50 to $549.99, blaming a “challenging economic environment”.
When was the PS5 released?
- United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea: November 12, 2020
- UK, Europe and the rest of the world: November 19, 2020
Where was the PS5 designed?
It was designed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, with Mark Cerny returning as lead architect after the PS4. The headline feature was a custom solid-state drive that could load data at up to 5.5 GB per second, so games loaded in seconds rather than minutes.
PS5 facts you might not know
- At about 39 cm tall, it is one of the largest games consoles ever made.
- Its DualSense controller can make triggers harder or easier to pull, so a bow string or a car brake feels different.
- Astro’s Playroom, a game built to show off the controller, came free on every console.
Frequently asked questions
How much did the PS5 cost at launch?
The PS5 cost $499.99 in the United States when it launched on November 12, 2020. The PS5 Digital Edition, without a disc drive, cost $399.99.
How much is $499.99 from 2020 worth today?
Adjusted for US inflation, the PS5’s $499.99 launch price is about $647.38 in September 2026 money.
Has the PS5 gone up in price?
Yes. In August 2025 Sony raised the US price of the standard PS5 to $549.99, $50 more than at launch.
What is the difference between the PS5 and the PS5 Digital Edition?
The only difference at launch was the disc drive. The Digital Edition had none and cost $100 less.
Want to compare the PS5 launch price with similar launches? See what the PlayStation 4, the PlayStation 2, the Xbox One and the Nintendo Switch cost, browse more famous launch prices, or play the PS5 question in Price Time Machine.
Sources
Launch prices and dates are checked against the sources below. Today’s price is calculated from official US inflation data and updates automatically when new figures are published.
- Press release: Sony, PlayStation 5 Launches this November at $399 for PS5 Digital Edition, and $499 for PS5 with Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc Drive (September 16, 2020)
- Wikipedia: PlayStation 5
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics: Consumer Price Index (CPI-U)