Somehow, there are still people buying Xbox Series X|S consoles. Many of them, in fact, were simply the Xbox console's best month of 2026, and its sales numbers in June were almost double what the console achieved in the same month last year.
Xbox sold more consoles last month
Circana's Mat Piscatella shared all sorts of data on console sales for June 2026 on Wednesday, chief among them that somehow the Xbox Series X|S had a good month. A sharp increase of 86 percent compared to its sales in June 2025, and there are many reasons why this could be, it is still unbelievable that many people are still willing to buy new Xbox consoles considering the state of the company after the platform and the cost of those consoles.
The Xbox series had a good June in the United States. Units, up 86% from last June, also increased the average price. This year's top US Xbox series units. Last June, the Xbox series was seeing the effects of the May price hike and Switch 2 launch. So, huge % growth on a small base last year. Still, a good month for the Xbox series. — Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) 2026-07-22T13:10:36.123Z
It's actually rising prices that are the main reason why Xbox has the best month of the year. Another price hike was announced for the Series X|S at the end of June. Such a big increase that Xbox has directly discontinued the 2TB model of the Series X console, even Asha Sharma knows that it will be too expensive.
The key detail here is that the second price hike is yet to be implemented. Prices aren't going up until August 1st, which is almost certainly why Xbox console sales are up year-over-year. Not only that, but the last Xbox series price hike was in May 2025. Nobody was buying expensive consoles last June and now people are buying at the same price before the MSRP goes up again, and suddenly the 86 percent increase starts to make sense.
Other reasons why people are still buying Xbox consoles
Piscatella highlights a few other reasons why people might be tempted to pick up a new Xbox in June. This comes hot on the heels of the release of Forza Horizon 6, a game that, along with Halo and Gears of War, could be considered Xbox's flagship series in 2026. There's also GTA 6 coming, which while it “plays best on PS5” will also be available on Series X|S. More people than you might think went ahead and picked up an Xbox with their GTA pre-order to squeeze in a few games between now and November.
Since there is no price increase until August 1st, it is possible, possibly, that July of the Series X|S is also good. That might be it for the console for a while, though. Probably by this time next year when we get another price hike and lots of people rush to buy before it gets even more expensive.
- brand
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Microsoft
- Original release date
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November 10, 2020
- Original MSRP (USD)
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$499
- operating system
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Proprietary (Windows based)
- processor
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Custom AMD 8-core Zen 2 3.8 GHz
- resolve
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720p – 4K UHD
