Microsoft says the release of the Xbox Series X and S are the “biggest launch in Xbox history” in terms of sales.
The recently published blog post written by Liz Hamren, Microsoft’s CVP of gaming experiences and platforms, says that more Xbox Series X and Series S console sold in the first 24 hours of release than any previous Xbox console generation, amounting to the “highest percentage” of new players at launch. The tech giant, unfortunately, has not revealed specific sales statistics for its new consoles.
In some sense, this isn’t surprising given that it’s been several years since Microsoft has revealed official Xbox One sales figures.
That said, video game industry analyst Daniel Ahmad recently tweeted that the Xbox One sold over oje million units in 24 hours when it launched in 13 markets back in November of 2013. If the Series X and Series S are indeed the fastest-selling Xbox consoles ever released, this means they sold over one million consoles, though this time in 37 markets instead of 13.
The previous largest launch for the Xbox brand was the Xbox One which sold over 1 million units in 24 hours across 13 launch markets.
We can infer Series X|S is over 1m from this. Although not too surprising given it launched in 37 markets.
Hopefully Microsoft shares hard data https://t.co/tWxxxkZNEH
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) November 12, 2020
Hamren also says there are over 3,594 titles spanning four Xbox console generations available on the Series X/S at launch. While Microsoft’s commitment to backwards compatibility is admirable, and this is an undeniably impressive number, the console features very few notable titles at launch.
In fact, NBA 2K21 — which is also available on the PlayStation 5 is the only major game built from the ground up to take advantage of the Series X’s power. It’s important to note that the delay of Halo Infinite until 2021 was a huge blow to the Xbox Series X/S’ launch lineup.
The blog post also mentions that 70 percent of Xbox Series X and Series S consoles are “attached” to either a new or existing Xbox Game Pass membership. Again, while an impressive number, it would be interesting to see Microsoft break out how many new subscribers Game Pass gained following the Xbox Series X/S’ release.
Game Pass offers instant access to several first-party Xbox titles, giving subscribers an instant library of current and future games.
Game Pass for Console and Game Pass for PC cost $11.99 per month, while Game Pass Ultimate, which includes Xbox and PC Games, as well as Xbox Live Gold, EA Play, and Xbox Cloud Gaming (formerly called xCloud), costs $16.99.
Check out our full reviews of the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. Sony’s competing PlayStation 5 console launched on November 13th. The company has yet to release any information regarding the PS5’s day-one sales.
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