The price you pay to play with your PS5: this is what it really consumes

With the energy crisis that we are experiencing everywhere, more and more people are analyzing in detail the energy consumption of appliances and household appliances in their homes in an attempt to reduce the final price.

Once we have researched and contracted the rate that best suits our needs, be it the free or regulated marketit’s time to control the cost of household appliances, trying to reduce the bill at the end of the month.

Video game consoles like the others Material like a PC computer, they are undoubtedly one of the biggest energy consumers in the home. Computer, screen, console or television, many hours are spent connected to the network.

Based on this, we wanted to calculate how much it costs us to use the PS5, Nintendo Switch or Xbox for 2 or 3 hours a day. We’ve left out TVs and audio systems because depending on their size in inches there may be more variation.

Electricity price and playing time

To calculate the price for which we can play daily with our console, we looked at the current price of energy and extrapolated it to the average playing times during which the console can be used.

The AECE (Association of Large Energy Consumption Companies) publishes a barometer in which the average electricity market prices in our country can be observed, with an average value so far this year of 0.2569 per kWh.

We take as a reference a day like today, September 23, when the average price of electricity is $0.32726/kWh according to Tarifaluzhora. We also take into account the average time spent per week by the population playing video games in Europe, which according to From the stadiumequals 8.1 hours.

We observe the consumption data of each console and in this way we can calculate what it costs us to play per day and what this means per month and per year. Please note that consoles in mode Be ready They also consume energy, very little, but it can reach 15 Wh.

How much does it cost me to play daily with the PS5?

The Sony PS5although it is one of the latest video game consoles to hit the market and is quite energy efficient, it draws 220 watt hours, which is twice as much as its PS4 predecessor.

According to these values, a person who plays 3 hours a day intensively with the PS5 will consume an average of 0.66 kWh, which is equivalent to $6.42 per month and the high figure of $77.10 per year (not counting consumption related to the monitor).

Newer consoles that support higher resolutions on the order of 4K, as well as effects such as ray tracing (the case of PS5 and Xbox Series X), can consume significantly more power with some games, approaching the maximum value of 220 watts per hour. .

How much does it cost me to play with Xbox One?

If we take into account the consumption of the Xbox One S, the product sheet tells us that the consumption is around 90 watt hours. With this in mind and by calculating 3 hours of play per day, we obtain a cost per month of $2.63 and a total of $31.54 per year.

How much does it cost me to play with Xbox Series S/X?

The new generation of Microsoft consoles they also gobble up nearly 220 watt-hours, just like the PS5. Thus, with the price of $0.3272/kWh, the consumption per day for one hour is 0.22 kWh, which is equivalent to $2.14 per month and $25.70 per year.

Let’s think out loud and do the math for a person who streams on Twitch him and streaming content through your Xbox console for 4 hours a day. The monthly cost of the energy consumed amounts to $8.57, while it is $102.8 per year.

How much does it cost me to play with the Nintendo Switch?

As seems obvious, the To change It’s the most efficient console and with the least amount of money you’ll have to spend. This seems obvious since it is a mobile device in which a low TDP value prevails to favor power dissipation in exchange for lower performance.

Nintendo itself claims that the consumption in TV mode is only 7 watts, although tests have shown us that consumption can go up to 18 watts in demanding games. These are the data we used for our calculations.

With these values, the player who uses his nintendo switch daily 3 hours a day you will see that your associated consumption per month will only be 54 euro cents, and the cost per year on the electricity bill will amount to $6.45, a far cry from $77.10 of the PS5.

The average consumption of game consoles

The values ​​can give us an idea of ​​the energy consumption that a current console can make. It will surely surprise more than one. We only intend to raise awareness of the need to turn off devices when not in use, and to monitor the hours of play of the little ones.

In any case, the consoles do not always work at their maximum power, so the final result we offer may differ slightly from reality. Indeed, the table of consumption of the various consoles, oscillates as follows:

Discover our ranking of best game streaming services if you plan to subscribe to Xbox Pass, PlayStation Now, Apple Arcade, GeForce Now, Stadia or any other.