In January-August 2026, Kazakhstan increased exports of game consoles 5.5-fold year-on-year to $2.1 million. The main shipments went to Russia and Belarus, trade analyst Yernar Serik noted in his channel. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.

The foreign trade specialist and author of the TradeReport channel drew attention to statistics on game device shipments. Over eight months, console exports from Kazakhstan amounted to $2.1 million versus $0.38 million a year earlier, while in physical terms – 31,100 units versus 12,700 a year earlier. Shipments over eight months have already exceeded the figures for the whole of 2025.

85% of shipments, or $1.77 million, went to Russia, and another 11% went to Belarus. The bulk of shipments occurred in the three summer months. Mostly relatively inexpensive game devices worth $67 (about 30,000 tenge) were exported. At the same time, 836 consoles were sold at $466 (about 210,000 tenge). This corresponds to the prices of well-known PlayStation and Xbox consoles, although slightly lower.

At the same time, game consoles are not produced in Kazakhstan itself. In fact, this is re-export, which is also confirmed by import data. Over the same eight months, consoles worth $6.5 million were imported into Kazakhstan, more than double last year's figure. At the same time, 74% of shipments came from China, and the rest from other Asian countries.

"Most likely, the growth in exports is associated with the expansion of re-exports of game consoles, primarily to Russia. But there is another hypothesis: some shipments that previously went through informal channels have now begun to be reflected in official statistics. Therefore, a fivefold increase in money does not necessarily mean a similar increase in real trade flows," the author of the TradeReport channel noted.

At the same time, Kazakhstan can also benefit from such re-exports, since added value in this model is generated through trade, logistics and intermediary services, rather than industrial production.

Earlier it was reported that sales of PlayStation and Xbox game consoles in the US fell amid rising prices and component shortages. According to analytical company Circana, in the first eight months of 2026, Xbox sales decreased by 33%.