Xbox Series X/S topples Switch sales in record-setting June

By Emily Morrow July 16, 2021

The Xbox Series X/S was the top-selling console platform in the United States in June, based on dollar sales tracked by NPD and reported by VentureBeat. Last month was the most successful June ever for Xbox, breaking a previous dollar sales record set in 2011. Many are speculating that the surge in sales is due to Microsoft’s strong showing at E3 2021.

Gaming hardware has seen a dramatic increase in sales over the past year, with a 112% increase in sales across the Switch, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5. Despite the proliferation of COVID-19 vaccines allowing for a return to a version of normalcy and numerous hardware shortages due to manufacturing issues, console sales continue to do extremely well.

For the first half of 2021, the Nintendo Switch was the overall best-selling unit in both dollar sales and units, and it remained the top seller in units in June. The PlayStation 5 is the fastest unit-selling console platform in history over its 8 months on the market.

The Switch was the top-selling console in both units and dollar sales in May until its reign was toppled by the Series X/S. It’s unclear whether the Series X/S can continue this run, particularly with component shortages still occurring and Nintendo’s extremely well-received E3 presentation looming in the background.

Xbox also had a dramatic E3 presentation this year, which introduced players to big-name titles like Halo Infinite, Redfall, and Starfield. Microsoft recently announced that the Xbox Cloud Gaming service is powered by custom Xbox Series X hardware, expanding the console’s influence into the world of cloud gaming and streaming.

It remains to be seen whether all of these slick announcements will be enough to bolster Xbox Series X/S sales through the long term.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Emily Morrow is a games journalist and narrative designer who has written for a variety of online publications. If she’s…

Gaming

The best cozy games

Riding in a boat with Kapp'n in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

In a world where so many games send you on missions with tense action and high stakes, sometimes it's nice to just sit back and relax a bit. That's where the cozy genre comes in with calming exploration, crafting, and decorating that give you a sense of purpose without all of the stress that comes from more action-oriented games. If that's what you're after, look no further, as we've compiled a list of what we consider to be the best cozy games you can play right now.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Gaming

All cross-platform games (PS5, Xbox Series X, PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC)

Two squads of heroes clash in an Overwatch 2 trailer.

Cross-platform support is becoming more important in the world of video games. Multiplayer hits like Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 and Fortnite have pushed crossplay into the limelight, and now most AAA multiplayer games release with at least partial cross-platform support. Finding every cross-platform game is no easy feat, though, so we did the hard work to bring you a comprehensive list of games that support crossplay.

Unfortunately, there aren't any rules when it comes to crossplay, so each game handles the feature a little differently. To make matters more confusing, certain backward-compatible games on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X still support crossplay on the most recent hardware, even if there isn't an official release for that hardware.

Gaming

The best external hard drives for Xbox Series X

xbox all access price pre orders retailers 2

The Xbox Series X's 1TB sounds excellent on paper, but in reality, Microsoft's console only offers about 802GBs of storage due to updates and the operating system. You may find yourself filling up your space quickly, especially if you're looking to download every new title that becomes available on Xbox Game Pass. Let's face it, Call of Duty alone takes well over 100GBs of storage — and with the system targeting 4K resolution, games are only growing in size.

The Xbox Series X is compatible with any external hard drive up to 16TB of storage. Games optimized for the Xbox Series X can only be stored on, but not played from, an external drive due to the games being designed to take advantage of faster loading speeds and Xbox Velocity Architecture. However, when it comes to storage for your Xbox Series X, there are many options to choose from as your game library expands. We have compiled a list of external drives that will make your gaming experience seamless. Note that they will come with the proper cables needed to connect to your Xbox console.
Seagate Storage Expansion Card