Kinect’s Revenge: Nex Playground Outsells Xbox Hardware In The US

by

For a long time, many believed the Kinect was a failure for the Xbox One, increasing its price and straining its performance. However, recent sales data from Circana shows that the Nex Playground – a device similar to Kinect – actually outsold Xbox consoles in the US during November, a surprising turn of events after over a decade.

Nex Playground sold more hardware units last month than Xbox Series X|S, coming in third place overall. However, Xbox earned more revenue from hardware sales because, while Nex Playground usually costs $250, it’s been discounted to $200 during the holidays. Generally, video game hardware sales were very poor last month – the lowest they’ve been since November 1995.

It’s probably not surprising to hear that the Nex Playground console briefly became the best-selling console in the US last month, surpassing both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox. This cube-shaped device uses a camera to track your movements, much like the older Kinect. It comes with five games already installed, and you can expand your game library with a subscription called Play Pass – it costs $49 for three months or $89 for a year.

Mat Piscatella, a senior director at Circana, recently told IGN that the success of the Nex Playground is noteworthy. He suggested that this indicates more affordable, family-friendly gaming consoles are particularly attractive as gifts during the holiday season.

As a big fan of these games, I was excited to see Black Ops 7 was the best-selling title in the US last month. But it’s a little worrying to hear it sold noticeably fewer copies than Black Ops 6 did last year. It looks like Battlefield 6 is really dominating the charts this year, as it’s currently the best-selling game of 2025 so far.

Read More

2025-12-17 19:39