Nex Playground Surpasses Xbox Hardware Sales in the US

The common belief has been that Kinect was a burden for the Xbox One, inflating its launch price and draining system resources. Fast forward over a decade, and the Kinect-inspired Nex Playground has surprisingly outsold Xbox hardware in the US for November, according to Circana. Nex Playground secured the third spot in hardware sales last month, surpassing the Xbox Series X|S. The silver lining for Xbox is that it generated more revenue, as Nex Playground is priced at $250 but has been discounted to $200 during the holiday season. Overall, video game hardware sales have taken a hit, hitting lows not seen since November 1995. This trend may not come as a shock to those keeping an eye on the market. Nex Playground even outperformed every PS5 and Xbox console bundle for a week last month in the US. This cube-shaped console includes a camera for body movement tracking, reminiscent of Kinect. It comes with five pre-installed games and offers a subscription Play Pass for access to a broader game library, priced at $49 for three months or $89 for a year. In a conversation with an outlet, Circana’s senior director Mat Piscatella remarked that the Nex Playground has been a “remarkable story” lately. “There could be a lesson here that more affordable, family-friendly gaming devices resonate well during the holiday gifting season,” Piscatella noted. On the software front, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 topped the sales charts in the US last month, although it experienced a double-digit percentage drop compared to 2024’s Black Ops 6, while Battlefield 6 currently holds the title of the best-selling game for 2025 so far.