PS5, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch – comparing which costs the least to run

05 January 2023 , 08:00

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Sure the PS5 and Xbox Series X are huge, but how much power do they use?

It's no surprise that spending all day playing video games will increase your energy bills. But what may surprise you is how much each of the glowing obelisks under your TV cost to run.

As the cost of living continues to bite, and with the energy price cap rising to £4,279, most households are now paying 34p/kWh, so now is probably a good time to look at how your PS5, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch are conspiring to bankrupt you on the sly. Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony all share the average power consumption of their consoles, so it's fairly easy (using that mystical device my maths teacher said I would never have in my pocket) to estimate how much juice each one guzzle, and how hard this will hit your wallet.

How much does a PS5 cost to run?

Both the Standard PS5 and the PS5 Digital Edition use roughly the same amount of energy. Makes sense considering the Blu-ray drive is there literally to dump games to the SSD and little else.

Although each hardware revision is slightly more energy efficient than the last, the difference between each is negligible. So if you’re planning on getting a PS5, it doesn’t matter which model or revision you get. (At least until the inevitable Slim model is released)

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The PlayStation 5 uses surprisingly little power considering its size (Phil Barker/Future Publishing via Getty Images)

According to , the average amount of power used by the console while playing a graphically intensive PS5 game like Spiderman: Miles Moralez is 201.2 watts. Therefore to complete Miles Moralez (which takes approximately 17.5 hours according to How Long to Beat) will cost you £4.10.

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Conquering the Lands Between in Elden Ring (133 hours) will cost you £9.10, while successfully scouring the Northern Realms for Siri, and playing far too many games of Gwent in The Witcher 3 (173 hours) will cost £11.83.

While in the default standby mode, the PS5 only uses 0.3 watts, so even if you aren’t playing the console very often it only costs 2p a week to leave it in rest mode. However, If you want your console to charge your controllers or download updates from the internet while resting, it will cost you approximately 3p a day.

How much power does a Series X or S use?

The good news for Xbox owners is that while gaming both the Xbox Series X and Series S are more energy efficient than the PS5. The bad news is that they use a lot more power when left on standby. They like to snack while they sleep, and boy do they have an appetite.

While using the Series X for gaming, Microsoft states that the console uses approximately 153 watts per hour. Therefore blasting your way through Halo Infinite (26 hours) will cost you about £1.35. Curb stomping your way through Gears 5 (18.5 hours) will cost you 96p, and tearing up Mexico in Forza Horizon 5 (106 hours) will cost £5.51. If only driving an actual car for more than 100 hours was so cheap.

However the Series S, with its more modest hardware, only draws 74 watts. So to complete Halo Infinite will cost you around 65p, Gears 5 will cost you 47p, and Forza Horizon 5 £2.67 on the cheaper console.

PS5, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch – comparing which costs the least to run

The Xbox Series X is slightly more energy efficient than the PS5 while playing games (Phil Barker/Future Publishing via Getty Images)

Obviously, this doesn’t take into account something like a marathon session of Fortnite or Call of Duty which will cost about 52p on Series X or 25p per day for a monster ten-hour session.

Whether you own an Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S, whatever you do, remember to turn on energy saver (shutdown) mode as soon as you can. Energy saver only uses 0.5 watts rather than the default sleep mode that draws up to 13 watts an hour while the console is idle – adding £38 a year to your electric bill.

Is the Nintendo Switch the most energy-efficient console?

Unsurprisingly, the Nintendo Switch is the most energy-efficient current-gen console by a country mile. Essentially a tablet, crammed full of energy-efficient mobile technology, Nintendo claims the original version of the system only uses seven watts while playing games through your TV in docked mode, while the OLED model only uses six.

To complete Animal Crossing: New Horizons you'll use only 20p's worth of electricity.

Therefore to take in the full majesty of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, including the DLC, romping through the remains of Hyrule for 220 hours will only cost you 45p. Meanwhile catching ‘em all in Pokemon Scarlet/ Violet will these days at only 15p.

Although Nintendo didn’t say how much power the console draws while charging they did state that while in sleep mode and connected to WiFi the console uses 0.3 watts, or 2.2 watts while using the new style dock with an ethernet cable plugged in.