One depressing part of the Xbox story over the past few years has revolved around Xbox hardware sales, which have been in near freefall decline quarter in, quarter out.
Factoring the memory crisis, attention market saturation, bad marketing, and the general negativity over the Xbox brand — the Xbox Series X|S platform has had a pretty awful gen, despite arguably being the best console Microsoft has ever made (on paper).
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There's no reason to think that Xbox's hardware fortunes won't continue to struggle in the near term. Price hikes are pending for these consoles, and the memory shortage is expected to get even worse before it gets better. But, hey, positive momentum is positive momentum, I guess.
Xbox Series had a good June in the US. Units up 86% vs last June, avg price up as well. Highest US Xbox Series units this year. Last June, Xbox Series was seeing impact of the May price increase and the Switch 2 launch. So, big % growth on a smaller base last year. Still, good month for Xbox Series.
— @matpiscatella.bsky.social (@matpiscatella.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-07-22T18:35:49.083Z
Mat Piscatella of Circana noted Xbox's positive June upswing on BlueSky, charting that Xbox had its best month ever. He noted that the increase offsets a nasty decrease from last June, owing to the Nintendo Switch 2 launch and Xbox's initial price increase wave. Xbox also has price increases pending for August, which has likely driven additional sales in the short term as users get on board now before rates go up. Piscatella noted that Nintendo Switch 2 was down -78% year over year, and PS5 was down -43%.
There are other potential factors here too for Xbox. Xbox has had a bit of a spotlight on it recently. Forza Horizon 6 has enjoyed massive sales success, and is presently exclusive to Xbox Series X|S on console (exclusives sell systems? who knew). New Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has also created some positive excitement for the brand, and hints of a more aggressive posture on exclusive content, a price cut for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and the promise of new games like Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution also might be having some impact. There's also the GTA 6 bounce. The Xbox Series S is going to be the cheapest way to access GTA 6 for the foreseeable future, despite the price hikes.
Microsoft might also simply be allocating more stock to the U.S. market. Japan, for example, has seen Xbox sales dive down from thousands of units, to hundreds, to mere dozens of units in recent years. Prioritizing Microsoft's core market in the short term seems like a smart play than trying to muddle through in markets where it has traditionally struggled. Although longer term, new CEO Asha Sharma has signalled intents to grow Xbox beyond its traditional Western shores.
Xbox isn't out of the woods yet
It's also true that Xbox is growing from a very small base number of units. An 86% increase might seem like a lot, but if you're starting with a low number already, Xbox still has a ways to go to show real growth. Still, up is up, and "up" is probably the only way Xbox can go from here.
I wrote recently how only heavy-hitting exclusives will change Xbox's console fortunes. The overall base of console gamers probably won't grow until Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo figure out a way to siphon youngsters moving directly to Roblox when joining the industry. Roblox is under pressure from world governments to tighten protections for youngsters, as the dangers of the social media-adjacent gaming platform become increasingly apparent.
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Games like Fallout and The Elder Scrolls enjoy mass market appeal. It's particularly true of Fallout, which has enjoyed mainstream TV show success recently. Minecraft as well represents vast untapped potential as a potential system seller for Xbox. The previous Xbox administration felt content to leave Minecraft to its own devices, but new CEO Asha Sharma has brought Minecraft directly in-house at Xbox, potentially signalling intent to leverage its mainstream status to synergise marketing beats with Xbox hardware.
It remains to be seen if Xbox Series X|S can finish with positive hardware growth for the quarter overall. The RAMpocalypse is on-going, and Xbox Series X|S consoles will pick up price hikes soon, too. But many gamers on Xbox One will likely be looking to upgrade for the first time specifically for GTA 6 soon, as well as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, which is cutting off last gen for the first time.
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