The latter years of the Xbox series generation are going out on a whimper. The consoles stopped selling to the point where this generation is the first to increase prices at the end. Now they removed the 360 store and plan to release games on anything but as an Xbox console exclusive. I doubt there will even be a new console in 2026 or 2027 since they claim their new targets are TikTok and the movie industry.

With the fact that sales are dire, Black Friday should be some saving grace to pump more sales into the console. It didn’t come true, as in not only did Nintendo and Sony smash them in terms of sales, but they didn’t even make it 3rd place, as some kiddie console managed to take it from them on Black Friday Weekend.

VGC

Xbox hardware was outsold by a little-known Kinect-style console during Black Friday week in the US, coming fourth.

That’s according to Circana data shared on social media, which suggests that the family console Nex Playground took 14% of the market for the week ended November 29.

As in the UK, PlayStation 5 dominated Black Friday week hardware sales, accounting for 47%, which was likely driven by discounts. Nintendo Switch 2 ranked second with 24%, meaning Xbox took less than 14%.

Nex Playground is an Android-powered console launched in 2023, which features a motion camera similar to Microsoft’s axed sensor, Kinect. The console features family games, such as Fruit Ninja, and retails for $250, but is regularly discounted to under $200.

The Playground has been quietly growing in popularity in the US market and even briefly outsold PlayStation 5 in the week before Black Friday (ended November 22).

Maybe next time don’t turn Game Pass into a waste of money to appease Ubisoft, cancel all the games mid-development, and have Halo release on PlayStation on day one; then maybe people will buy it on the last Friday of November.

Hope the kids are enjoying Fruit Ninja on the Nex Playground, as all the unsold Xbox consoles are just thrown into the landfill in 2027.