For many years, video games stayed at a relatively steady price of around $59.99. But in recent years, these games spiked in price from $59.99 to $69.99 and even $79.99. This increase in price is due to inflation, but why now, and why is it such a sharp spike?

Video games being this expensive isn’t exactly new. Originally, video games in the 1980s and 1990s would span from prices of $30 to an absurd $100. Mostly, though, Nintendo and Sega would put out games that were an average price of $50. Around 2005, people started to see a rise and decrease in video game prices. All AAA games moved toward video games being an average price of $60. There were always exceptions; these being games made by smaller companies that would be cheaper, or games that had extra content that people would have to pay for in-game, otherwise would make the games more expensive.

In recent years, video games have increased in price being $70 and even going up to $80. After years of consistency, it comes as a surprise and seems outrageous to gamers that prices increased, and at such a severe spike, in such a short amount of time. Despite this, the price increase is due to the rate of inflation. A comparison of the U.S. dollar from 2017 to now is $18.28. Meaning $60 in 2017 is equivalent to $78.28 in the year 2025. In this eight year period, the U.S. dollar consistently went up and eventually hit around a $20 dollar increase after eight years, meaning these companies are finally adjusting their prices to what the equivalent would have been a few years ago.

So, despite the increase in video game prices after the consistent game prices of many years, it is simply just these companies accounting for inflation and starting the new price trend that may continue for many years to come.