Black Friday, or more accurately, “Black Friday Week,” is just one part of the holiday sales season. But this is a big part. Every year, retailers in many Western countries—including the United States—bank on gangbuster sales during this busy, sales-friendly, short stretch. Console makers want to make a strong showing here.
Between the dominance of the PlayStation 5 (more on that in a second) and the shiny new appeal of the Nintendo Switch 2, one would tend to expect that Microsoft's Xbox Series X|S consoles were destined for a third-place 2025 Black Friday finish. As it happens, gaming sales tracking company Circana includes a certain semi-nick device that pushes the poor Xbox in. Fourth.
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Play pass
“In the US,” Circana's Mat Piscatella revealed on Bluesky yesterday, “PlayStation 5 accounted for 47% of total hardware unit sales during Black Friday week, leading the market.” As many have noted, such a strong performance has been led in large part to Sony's cleverly aggressive discount strategy; If there's ever a time of year to reverse this generation's unfortunate “value increases over time” saga, it's here. “Nintendo Switch 2 in 2nd place (24%), with NEX Playground 3rd (14%).
Right, right. expected sound. PS5, Switch 2, Microsoft's struggling NEX Playground on the back – wait, what?
The NEX Playground is (somewhat ironically) a Kinect-like fitness device. It's classified as gaming hardware, because, well, it is. The website's tagline reads, “Play what moves you. Sweat, laugh, and grow — together.” Suffice it to say, it doubles as a fitness tool. Which is great!
The playground isn't new, though this latest news coverage is sure to blow your mind in the minds of hardcore, sales-analyzing, gamers like us. As Astral_lion02 noted on InstallBase, it sold only 5,000 units in CY 2023. That jumped to somewhere south of 100,000 YTD at the end of November 2024. From there it is a steady journey; Another prominent IB analyst, Vena, predicts over 200k sold for Black Friday week alone.
If we combine the PS5's 47% with the Switch 2's 24% and the Playground's 14%, that leaves just 15% of the market share for the Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 1, and any number of scattered little things. Given that there is no original switch completely Still cratered — it's only getting there in short order, understandably — with some theorizing a sub-10% Xbox share.
It's old hat to say that Xbox is struggling globally, and it's quickly becoming old hat to say that it's also struggling hard on its home turf. But this latest report isn't the result of NEX Playground turning into some truly major player (which isn't to say it hasn't done very well for itself); It has more to do with how much the Xbox has stumbled as of late, when a slightly niche device with a Play Pass subscription wins over a machine hard-coded for Game Pass success.
Kind of makes me wonder what I'll be seeing from the Steam Machine next holiday season.
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