RAM Prices Will Surge Even Higher in 2026 as AI Demand Triggers a 'Memory Pandemic' for Gamers
Over the last few decades, creating video games has become extremely lucrative for the most successful companies. That is the case because it seems like an ever-increasing percentage of the population is becoming devoted gamers who are willing to invest in their hobby. However, it is also true that gamers, just like everyone else, like to save money on their pursuit of happiness.
Unfortunately, it appears that gamers are poised to have a major frustration throughout 2026 for a reason that is completely out of their control. The reason for that it has now been reported that prices are ballooning and will get worse for a key piece of gaming hardware that is always in high demand.
RAM Prices Will Climb in 2026, Leaving PC Gamers Caught in an AI-Driven 'Memory Pandemic'
Over the last several months, it has felt like artificial intelligence has been affecting virtually every aspect of society. Between AI companies holding up the stock market, the power demands that the technology requires, the job losses, and more, eye-catching headlines seem to pop up all the time. Now, some recent headlines have revealed that AI is quickly becoming a major problem for video game enthusiasts, and things are poised to get even worse.
On January 2nd, 2026, Rock Paper Shotgun published an article predicting what the most important video game news stories coming out of 2026 will be. Unfortunately for gamers, one of the topics that the article focused on was the fact that the prices of RAM will continue to rise throughout 2026. The most obvious group of people those price hikes will affect is PC gamers, who will see price surges, which will make any attempt to upgrade their computers more expensive. However, console players can also be poised to feel the pain as RAM plays a vital role in the production of consoles, which could cause the prices of video game systems to rise.
Rock Paper Shotgun's article laid the blame for the surging RAM prices at the feet of Artificial Intelligence companies demanding so many chips that the prices have to rise. To prove the outlet's point, a different Rock Paper Shotgun article, which was published on December 4th, 2025, detailed the fact that a company called Micron had announced that they were no longer going to be selling RAM to typical consumers. Instead, the company was pivoting and only selling its RAM chips to AI companies that need them for data centres. Needless to say, having a source of chips that was previously available to consumers abandoning that market would cause less competition and inevitably raise prices. That is only one indication of why the AI company proliferation is hitting RAM prices hard.
On December 29, 2025, Wccftech published an article in which it predicted how the exploding price of RAM could affect Gamers in 2026. That article contained a headline that argued that the industry will be in a "memory pandemic," which is an extremely illustrative way of describing how price surges will continue. However, the best way to detail how dire RAM prices rising in 2026 could be is by looking at the state of the situation as 2025 was coming to an end.
On December 29, 2025, The Verge updated its article listing several stories the outlet wrote in November and December of that year about RAM prices spiking. One of those articles reported that a PC company called Framework had raised its price on a 48GB RAM chip from $250 in June 2025 to $620 in December of the same year. With those figures in mind, it is staggering to consider that several outlets are reporting prices will get worse in 2026. According to Rock Paper Shotgun's first article cited above, the only way the RAM price rises will stop is if the AI boom busts.