2025 was the worst year for the Xbox family of consoles in the UK in terms of sales, according to a new report.
Christopher Dring, Editor-In-Chief and Co-Founder of The Game Business, took to Twitter/X to share that sales of Xbox consoles were down by 39% in the UK during the year 2025, making it comfortably the worst year on record for Xbox consoles.
Responding to another tweet, Dring agreed that Microsoft no longer wants to sell consoles or focus on the hardware business, as profit margins are lower. Windows Central’s Jez Corden added that, despite the return of popular Xbox franchises like Gears of War and Forza Horizon in 2026, things will not improve on this front. According to him, this is intentional.
A recent CNBC report referenced estimates from VGChartz, which placed Xbox Series S and Series X combined sales at roughly 1.7 million units for the year 2025. By comparison, the original Nintendo Switch, which launched in 2017, was estimated to have sold 3.4 million units during the same period. However, those figures were quickly challenged by KeplerL2, a known hardware-focused leaker, who suggested the actual number may be even lower. Commenting on NeoGAF, KeplerL2 stated, “I think it’s closer to 1 million actually.” Their estimate aligns with the 39% Xbox console sales decline in the UK, as mentioned by Dring.
Last month, Mat Piscatella, Senior Director and Video Game Industry Thought Leader at Circana (formerly NPD), shared that the PS5 accounted for 47% of total Black Friday week hardware unit sales in the US, leading the market. He added that Nintendo Switch 2 ranked second (24%), while the NEX Playground ranked third (14%), leaving Xbox Series X|S consoles in the likely fourth place. Microsoft’s consoles losing the third spot to the Nex Playground during the Black Friday sales period came as a surprise, given how the US market had historically been the most dominant region for them.
