Microsoft Reveals Xbox Series X/S Sales Numbers

Following almost a decade of not reporting on Xbox sales, Microsoft casually reveals the sales numbers of its last two console generations.

Lifetime Xbox Console Sales Numbers in June 2023

Xbox Series X/S: 21 million
Xbox One: 58 million

[SullysCigar]

Looks like VGChartz was pretty close, but was over-tracking series XS by around a million sales. They show them at 22m through to May 27th, with YTD sales being 25.5% down, while PS5 is 127.1% up.

[Jin_Sakai]

Microsoft are really killing Xbox. It’s sad because 360 was great. Ever since has been a downward spiral.

[S2Killinit]

MS is trying to kill consoles in general as well.

[Jin_Sakai]

Xbox is a sinking ship and they’re trying to take everyone down with it.

[Profchaos]

Look at the leadership during the 360 era more specifically the first half it was lead by Peter Moore who previously lead Sega in the Dreamcast era he knew what the gamers wanted and drove the 360 to an early lead which his successor totally dropped the ball on with don coming in ignoring the hardcore gamer chasing the Wii crowd with casual games kinnect and being the main reason why the x1 flopped hard it wasn't until Phil came in and helped salvage the system it saw some fanfare.

[StormSnooper]

damn, its worse than VG Charts estimates.

[Tacoboto]

That's a dramatic stretch to say "killing". They haven't had a console dip anywhere near what Nintendo had with the Wii U (under 14m). The original Xbox sold 24 million units, GameCube was under 22 million. If these figures are based on last fiscal quarter, they could possibly be at or around that 22 in well under 3 years (vs GameCube's 5 year lifespan and Xbox OG's 4).

I actually can't believe One sold 58m. I would've thought 40-50. And the 360's whatever is likely inflated by 10m from repurchases after every OG unit RRODing

[Crows90]

@tacoboto

Thats only because they switched gears.
Xbox One would have been the Wii u scenario if not for removing all digital, always connected and Kinect.

The wii u had a marketing problem.

[Godmars290]

@S2Killinit:

MS is trying to literally move the goalpost, to streaming.

[LoveSpuds]

@tacoboto

You cannot compare previous generations, it's completely disingenuous. The video game industry has expanded exponentially even since the Gamecube and PS1 days.

The sales potential in modern gaming is multiples of what it was 20 -30 years ago. The fact is, those sales for Xbox, who are considered a major player, are really poor and have been in a downward spiral since its 360 heyday.

[Hofstaderman]

I’m interested in the breakdown of the Series console sales.

[FallenAngel1984]

Why it matter

Manufacturers rarely if ever break down individual SKU sales

[Hofstaderman]

It would give an indication if MS would ever consider discontinue the S as it’s holding back the series X. These consoles are not different sku’s theres more differences between them than the inclusion or exclusion of a disc drive.

[S2Killinit]

Well since they are two different consoles as well as two different SKUs.

Seems even the abysmal estimates were over-tracking series s/x though.

[FallenAngel1984]

@ Hof

They’re obviously never going to discontinue it. They still require devs to make two versions of Xbox Series games and they’re not going to screw over the millions who already bought the S by making future Series games not run on it

Plus they just announced a new 1TB S model further showing their commitment to that SKU

You don’t have to like it, but rhat model is here to stay

[ChasterMies]

It matters because Series S is already struggling with current gen AAA games. Developers and gamers should know what they are up against,

[FallenAngel1984]

@ S2K

They are different SKUs, not different consoles. Nobody labels DSi, New 3DS, PS4 Pro or Xbox One X as their own separate individual consoles.

@ Deus

“Developers and gamers should know what they are up against,”

Why should developers and gamers care about SKU sales when Microsoft has a mandate to develop two versions of every game regardless? Even if only 6 million Xbox Series S consoles have been sold, it’s still going to exist moving forward. Microsoft isn’t going to neglect the consumers who opted for the lower end model.

[VenomUK]

@FallenAngel The breakdown of individual SKU sales matters because it would indicate how Microsoft may be making decisions about its business. If the majority of that 21m are Series X then Microsoft will be pursuing its first party games to use that as the lead platform to exploit its full power. However if Series S has had most sales by a significant number, for example 70%, then Microsoft will be pushing its developers and third parties to ensure Xbox games’ features are fully compatible with its highest selling console of this generation.

[FallenAngel1984]

@ Venom

It still doesn’t matter in that aspect. Microsoft already internally knows how much each SKU sold and they still announced a new 1TB S model. That alone should indicate how committed Microsoft is to providing both models.

The majority of Xbox Series are obviously the X model but Microsoft still is NEVER going to abandon the millions of S users. Japan in particular is probably the only region where the S model sells more than the X. It doesn’t matter the percentage, it doesn’t make sense to diminish their own userbase by dropping support for the lower end model.

[VenomUK]

@FallenAngel1984. The ratio of Xbox Series S to Series X sales WILL affect Microsoft’s actions. A news story this
week was about the Xbox version of Baldur’s Gate 3 being delayed so more time can be had to give the Series S feature parity. Microsoft could have allowed developer Larian to release the Xbox Series X version at the same time as the PS5 version, but currently forbids it so as not to separate the two Series consoles. So now the X version is being held from release until the S version is ready. I suspect this is is an indication that Microsoft places importance on its Series S install base because they are substantially in the majority. If, for example, ninety per cent of the Series install base was Series X then it would likely allow the Series X version to launch day and date with the Series X version.

‘Baldur's Gate 3 dev says Xbox version still coming but "compromises" may have to be made
Co-op on Series S remains sticking point.’
https://www.eurogamer.net/b...

[sadraiden]

This comment is erroneous. It matters obviously to Hofstaderman because they want to know. Manufacturers regularly break down sales for individual SKUs. Sony doesn't lump PS3 sales in when they're talking about how well the PS4 performed. MS lumping Xbones and Series' together is meant to obfuscate how badly each generation performed.

[wiz7191]

@Deus idk I think it depends on how devs approach development for the S .. from what I’m seeing that smaller memory pool is really the culprit. Instead of making assets exclusively for the Series S , they’re talking Series X assets and trying to stuff what they can into that memory.

[FallenAngel1984]

@ Venom

I’m aware of what’s happening with Baldur’s Gate 3 but Microsoft still wouldn’t just axe the S model. They already have consumers that opted for it and it be an extremely bad decision for them to make that platform irrelevant. That’d just fragment their userbase and create distrust in the brand almost similar to what Saturn’s premature discontinuation did to Sega’s brand.

Say for example when New 3DS, PS4 & Xbox One X released they went onto sell more overall lifetime units than the base model. Neither of the hardware manufacturers would stop making games compatible with the base model because various consumers still used them. Same principle here.

From Microsoft’s own action of announcing and soon releasing a 1TB S model we can already see they’re committed to that SKU. They already know how much each sells and they’re still supporting both, so it’s just useless speculation to think them making those breakdown numbers public would change anything. That mandate would still exist and that 1TB S would still release regardless.

@ sad

Neither Sony or Nintendo regularly gave breakdowns of the SKUs for PS2, GBA, DS, PSP, PS3, Wii, 3DS, Vita, Wii U, PS4, or PS5. Switch is the odd one out

Also, “Sony doesn't lump PS3 sales in when they're talking about how well the PS4 performed.”

https://www.gamespot.com/am...

I guess it’d be awkward for that article to exist then…

Yeah Sony still updated PS4 sales, but they have on occasion combined sales numbers for their platforms

[Binarycode]

500 series x consoles,

20,999,500 Series s consoles.

Done.

[northpaws]

MS is overthinking, keep pushing different things like Kinect, TV, Cloud, GamePass, when all they needed to do to be successful is actually put the resources on making amazing games. Some people would say Nintendo is all gimmicks but they are actually not, their gimmicks are usually weak, and what makes them so successful is their games are actually good and fun to play. Same for Sony, their have their shares of gimmicky stuff, but I would say they are mostly focused on delivering quality games, very consistently.

[CS7]

100% correct

[Crows90]

Stop spouting so much pro gamer common sense!
Some "fans" despise this type of talk.

[Charlieboy333]

I wouldn't say they are overthinking, but rather that their focus isn't on what's good for gaming or on bringing their customers games that match the quality and consistency of their rivals. It's pretty clear that they are only thinking of ways to realise their dream of having everyone dependant on their subscription where they have full control over what you play. A dream where you own nothing and lose access to all your games the minute you skip a payment....even if you have been paying for the last 10 years. Don't be surprised in a couple of years when all their games release only through gamepass with no option to buy physical or even digital, making sure that, just like Netflix, the only way to access their content is through their subscription.

[EvertonFC]

Everybody but MS knew that, it's laughable really how some of these people get the positions there in within companies yet there nothing but clueless.

[Sarcasm]

Holy sh*t I completely forgot about Kinect. I still remember cracking up about

"Hey you wanna know what the bottom of an avatar's foot looks like? BAM, there it is" lmfao

[Gamer75]

There you go for those who kept speculating, now you know how many have sold

[FallenAngel1984]

I can’t believe it’s really been 8 years since Microsoft stopped regularly giving out hardware numbers, especially when they were so boastful about them during the Xbox 360 era

[Ninver]

I remember those days. You couldn't get Greenberg to shut up.

[cell989]

He was such a clown with their statistics lol

[TicklefistCP]

It's not bad. Not leading the market but not worthy of all the derisive commentary.

[Jin_Sakai]

It’s not bad it’s downright abysmal to Playstation and Nintendo numbers.

[darthv72]

...but compared to its other iterations it is doing better than the previous models. Keep in mind the 360 had help from RRoD as well as Kinect a few years after.

[StormSnooper]

@Darth72
Series s/x is actually doing much worse than Xbox One. It is currently selling at 1 to 3 of Playstation. The xbox one sold slightly less than half of PS4. At the rate it is currently going, series s/x will be selling worse than the xbox one generation. Unless you mean purely numbers and not market share.

[senorfartcushion]

Both are abysmal compared to Nintendo’s numbers 😂

[StormSnooper]

"not bad". I remember 2 million difference in world wide sales was considered a huge gap. Now, xbox is millions of units behind in each and every country/territory.

[AmUnRa]

I remember the fraise that MS spouted: "The one who sells 10 million first has won the generation".
That backfired for them😉

[SullysCigar]

I remember that. I also remember the Microsoft executive saying they hoped to sell 1 BILLION Xbox Ones.

But sure, @TicklefistCP, 21 million is "not bad". It's also over a million less than we thought they'd sold thanks to VGChartz estimates...but it's "not bad". It's only half of it's nearest competitor and the gap is growing, but it's "not bad".

Lol

[EvertonFC]

If there is ONLY approx 3 years left of the gen and Xbox continue on this trajectory that would put them around 45m, less than xbox one total sales numbers, that would be embarrassing.

[MrNinosan]

Why would it be only 3 years left?
That would be by far the shortest gen then.
It's at 4,5 years left on this gen.

[Minute Man 721]

This gen barely started...look to 2029 the latest

[StormSnooper]

they are currently necking and neck and the xbox one has made 0.86 million gain on series consoles in the last quarter. Its literally breathing down the series' neck. Not to mention that even if they were to sell the same number this gen as they did last get, it would be a disaster because the number of consumers has increased a lot since last Generation as it is the case every generation.

[Lexreborn2]

They have been sabotaging themselves for decades now. I just pray no one falls for this tactic because it’s obviously a ploy.

[ApocalypseShadow]

It's not bad numbers. It's just not PlayStation numbers. They've been cannibalizing their sales for some time. Pushing for digital over physical hardware. Putting their content day one on PC. It is what it is. Bad strategy or on purpose.

But it's not bad numbers. If they had made some great internal software instead of trying to buy up the industry as some last ditch attempt, they'd be better numbers.

[Sonic1881]

That's all 🤔

[Futureshark]

So by those simple numbers
21m series X/S
79m series X/S + Xbone
Therefore 58m Xbone sales!!???

So less then half of Xbone owners upgraded to Series X/S...?

Massive player base loss there, presumably they either gave up gaming, bought a PC or jumped to PlayStation.
Which the last option is interesting as I believe MS lost alot of 360 owners to the PS4 before too.

[darthv72]

Say what? You think everyone just buys into a new platform at the same time? So what do you say about the even bigger drop in player base between PS4 and 5?

[EvertonFC]

Playstation fans who went over to the 360 basically came back to playstation with PS4.
Xbox won them then immediately lost them, once the gears and halo fad died off they just came back to the exclusive games.

[Ninver]

I must admit I myself purchased the 360 because it was the first next gen console released before the ps3 and I wanted to experience the leap to HD gaming first hand. I even bought Ghost Recon and Oblivion I had a blast with both.

But soon as the ps3 came out it becamemy primary device. Only touched the 360 again when Gears series came about. Then the ps3 went on a AAA spree. Good times.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I know alot of my friends who were Xbox fans abandoned ship for the PS5 this generation, I'm actually surprised more didn't turn to PC gaming considering that would be a logical pivot for ex-Xbox fans/owners.

[MrNinosan]

Oh oh... That is a very awkward comment, if you were trying to say something bad about Xbox and praising Playstation.

21 million Xbox Series contra 58 milion Xbox One
38 million PS5 contra 125 million PS4...

I hope you quickly can understand how embarrassing your comment was.

[anast]

Ouch...

[Crows90]

58 million for Xbox One consoles. Yeah. That sounds about right. Too much if you ask me considering the lineup of exclusives it had.

48% new business in the Xbox series s market is pretty significant. Assuming 10 million series s sold that would mean almost 5million new Xbox gamers. That'll likely increase because of the Bethesda purchase.

Every single Xbox series s which is dirt cheap is geared towards the subscription service.

[jznrpg]

But that means they lost just about the same amount of old buyers as they are tracking really close to Xbox one sales.

[Crows90]

Yes. But those old buyers may come back when they realize there will actually be games worth getting on it...in a few years.

[jznrpg]

@Crows90 some may go back but I bet many wont. People don’t like spending a good amount of money and feeling like they wasted it for years.

[Crows90]

Except the series s is dirt cheap. They may be inclined towards that console. It'll be interesting to see what happens when starfield releases.

Lots of people buy only 1 console...a single game can make a big difference for a lot of casuals.

[neomahi]

Microsoft CEO says he doesn't like exclusives? I guess we should see if you practice what you preach, then, eh? Xbox isn't making money on its original Gears of War trilogy, port that.

The truth of the matter is, Xbox very much believes in exclusives, and they want them just as much as this E3 Press Briefing is flooded with that mentality, only Xbox was too busy of playing the political game of "we support the LGBTQP+ community" instead of focusing on gaming, obviously as seen in this showing:

https://www.youtube.com/liv...

But, when Major League Baseball, that's in the business of baseball and not gaming pressed Sony to not only pay the development costs and it's their development studio that was strong-armed in developing their exclusive game on competing platforms, that Phil Spencer didn't seem to share Microsoft CEOs sentiment when he didn't stand with PlayStation, and thus gaming, telling the MLB "hey, we don't do that. Exclusives are [sacred] to us and this industry, we can't do that." Instead, Phil Spencer was so desperate for something of PlayStation quality, especially to serve his own purposes, that he shamefully accepted it without argument and used Sony's own game to promote his GAME PASS by giving a game he sacrificed nothing for, worked hard for, or payed for, but he gave it away to spite Sony and take something from them, giving nothing in return.

So, do we feel any sort of pity for this kind of man? A hypocrite? Not at all. He's a fraud, a con, and has no honor, no integrity, and he stilled lied under oath. So we feel no pity for this shame of a thing that wants to be called a "man"

[Ninver]

😂😂 "shame of a thing that want to be called a man"

That's brutal lol

[northpaws]

It has been going down hill since first half of XBox 360, when they started focusing on Kinect instead of releasing high quality exclusives.

The problem was never the business models, but the games that they produce, if the last two years of GamePass was filled with killer first party games, people wouldn't be in so much doubt about it now.

[Godmars290]

The business model is at the very core of the Xboxes issues. Somewhere during the 360 era it got into MS's head that the console only needed to be a content hub like Netflix Youtube or Steam. A mindset now reinforced by streaming.

[Minute Man 721]

Wait til Sony start doing the same thing...it will be praised 😆 🤣 😂

[Godmars290]

@Minute Man 721:

What? That they can't make their own games? The only way they can compete in the industry is by cannibalizing it?

Try to remove the fanboyism from what MS is trying to do.

[Minute Man 721]

Talking about streaming.

Once Sony does it.... the praises will come

[Godmars290]

Sony already tried streaming. Their own brand of TVs back in the PS3 days. Killed the program before trying phones.

So yeah, nothing MS does is original, they just pretend to have been their idea.

[northpaws]

@Minute Man 721

The problem is not whether they do streaming or not, but how focused they are, like I said, if XBox produced the games to support GamePass, no one would compare. But continue to think we are just biased so MS continue to do what they are doing, only Xbox gamers suffer.

[EvertonFC]

The series S/X could possibly sell less than the Xbox one ? 🤣😂
If let's say there is ONLY 3 years left of the gen that'll be approx 42m sold.

[CBaoth]

60 million less than PS4 or Switch last gen. 21 million total this gen with over half being the series G console. 38 mil PS5 vs. <10mil Series X. 6yr old Switch outsold Series G/X in same timeframe. Wut happened to all the talk of the "BEAST"?

Thank god consumers haven't fallen for this garbage subscription model this gen. What's even more humorous? All this publisher talk about moneyhatting Bethesda and ABK has disguised the fact none of the existing studios under MS have released anything noteworthy since the new gen (maybe Gears DLC). How fuckin bad would it be for MS without those media splashes this gen?

[Demetrius]

I decided to get me a Xbox 360 slim yesterday cause back when I was a teen we had so called friends break in and still most of our things including my game systems, so now I bought back GTA IV with expansions, fable 2, saints row 1&2, crackdown, saboteur, Batman Arkham origins, I was having a blast on all of them, first time playing origins the vibe of that game is dope it's not bad like mfs and reviewers said, plus getting a 360 yesterday really made me smile and hella nostalgia kicked in, but I swear the 360 aged well, back when Microsoft treated gaming well, it's sad AF to see what they have become cause Xbox have always been great consoles, all they gotta do is get on par with Nintendo and Sony with creative games but all they do is boast and cry like big ass man babies smh 🤦🏾, sure Nintendo has the less power console but they keep their franchises and other titles around, same with Sony, Microsoft just throw money around and complain bout shhi these days they need inner company restructuring it's like they are ran but politicians and corny mfs nowadays seriously

[Abnor_Mal]

Why was my comment marked as inappropriate?

Numbers don’t lie.

[Aloymetal]

Yeah, I just saw that and it's kinda weird since you posted facts and didn't insult anyone here.

[Abnor_Mal]

Yea I know right, I can only imagine somebody got booty pains from facts, or me saying Microsoft are resorting to desperate measures.

I mean they bought Bethesda because they desperately didn’t want Sony getting the upper hand on them with timed exclusives, so they bought Bethesda instead.

If that doesn’t reek of desperation then I don’t know.

[ironmonkey]

Damn and ouch lol but hey man keep fighting the fight, keep that boat afloat.

[sadraiden]

Keep in mind, most of those 79M units sold were businesses buying Xbox Ones to use as raffle/giveaway items.

[purple101]

"48% new to series s"

No mate,

your fans signing up with new email address for cheap gamepass

[jznrpg]

Makes sense

[Aloymetal]

100%!!

[Minute Man 721]

Wrong....no "Hardcore" Xbox fanboys gonna buy an S

[derek]

Ps5 has already doubled xbox sales at this point, it took longer last gen.

[Aloymetal]

And all that while having a chip issue at the start of this gen. PS5 was practically in chains but now the beast is loose!

[TheColbertinator]

I keep telling y'all vgchartz is full of BS. Microsoft knows their own numbers better than anyone so these figures are on point.

[Rude-ro]

Everyone knows…
But they are partnered with this site and do the tabloid approach of marking their articles as “rumor”.
And yes… they do it intentionally.

[Aloymetal]

Yup, VGChartz got exposed back in Nov 2018 when they had the xbone at 40mil units sold when in fact the real numbers were 36mil, AMD released their official chip (gpu's) sales to each gaming company but the biased gaming media swept it all under the carpet.
Here's the official numbers from AMD Nov 2018 (page 24) 36mil
https://www.jonpeddie.com/i...
And here's the fake overinflated numbers from VGChartz in Nov 2018 (scroll down 40mil)
https://www.vgchartz.com/ar...

[MIDGETonSTILTS17]

I’m surprised to see the Series S having almost 50% new Xboxers….

PS5 basically boasted that same data point, and I assumed that was fueled by former Xboxers jumping ship…

So who is flocking to the Xbox for the first time, now? Switch kids finally old enough for their parents to let them play CoD?

[Rude-ro]

Microsoft is in two major markets…
The halo parents that never cared about gaming or gaming news are buying them for their kids as they get old enough to game on a console.
Just out of muscle memory

[purple101]

As I said earlier...people signing up with new accounts for cheap gamepass tricks

[Goozex]

LOL