Xbox Series X and S have biggest console launch in Microsoft’s history

Microsoft has announced that the Xbox Series X and S have seen the best launch of any console in its history.

The news came from Phil Spencer via Twitter today. He explained that these next-generation consoles have sold more units, combined, than any other Microsoft console. They also sold over more countries than any other Microsoft console too.

In his post he thanked every customer for being part of Xbox history. He added that the company is working hard on restocking the supply of units for retailers as soon as possible. Ending by stating that this launch has shown box that the connective power of play is more important than ever.

At this point in time, Spencer hasn’t shared information on which console sold the best out of Microsoft’s two next-gen offerings. It’s unlikely that we’ll get figures for this any time soon. This is because Microsoft stopped sharing information on the Xbox One’s sales figures early on in its lifecycle. Spencer has also spoken on the matter, explaining that he doesn’t want his team to be focused on sales numbers.

Instead, Spencer wants the primary outcome his team looks at to be the number of players they see. This can be studied through the number of Game Pass subscribers, and those playing Xbox games online.

Spencer believes that when he begins to highlight secondary details like sales figures, which games are coming to PC, and backwards compatibility, it becomes all that the team focuses on. Which isn’t the environment he wants for his team.

Therefore, what will be publicly disclosed to us in the future is player numbers. We should expect these over the coming weeks.

Using Google, Amazon, and Facebook as examples, Spencer added that the company won’t even disclose sales figures if the Xbox Series X and S outsell the PlayStation 5. For example, Google will always discuss the number of Chromecast users they have, but never the number of units they’ve sold.

Spencer went on to point out that there are three billion gamers in the world today, but maybe 200 million households actually have consoles. As a result, the player number figures are far more powerful than the hardware sales numbers.

Finally, Spencer pointed out that the console gaming space is getting smaller and smaller. This is because more players are using services like Game Pass on different devices.