During Black Friday week in the US, Circana data showed an unexpected competitor outsold Xbox: the Nex Playground, a niche family motion-gaming console similar to Kinect. This surprising shift highlights how consumer habits are changing.
TL;DR
Nex Playground Outsells Xbox During Black Friday — Quick Summary
During Black Friday week in the US, the Nex Playground, a motion-gaming console, outsold Xbox, showcasing a surprising shift in consumer habits towards casual, family-friendly gaming.
- Black Friday sales: PS5 led at 47%, followed by Switch 2 at 24%, Nex Playground at 14%, and Xbox trailing behind.
- What is Nex Playground: A small, affordable Android console with a motion camera, designed for casual family gaming, priced around $200.
- Why it took off: Easy, casual games, simple setup, impulse-buy pricing, and a demand for active play devices contributed to its popularity.
- Pre-Black Friday momentum: Nex Playground outsold the PS5 the week before Black Friday, indicating growing interest beyond one-day sales spikes.
- Motion gaming resurgence: Nex Playground fills the gap left by Kinect, offering home fitness, family games, and nostalgia, showing there’s demand for motion devices again.
- UK market contrast: In the UK, PS5 dominated with 62% market share, while Xbox lagged behind with only 10%.
Strong discounts on the PS5 drove high demand, while casual motion gaming saw a fresh boost in popularity, showing that gamers are exploring new types of interactive fun beyond traditional consoles.
The US Black Friday
In the US during Black Friday week, most people bought a PS5, with Nintendo Switch 2 coming in second and the Nex Playground in third. Xbox Black Friday sales were even lower than Nex Playground’s, which shows how much the market has shifted toward Sony, Nintendo’s new console, and this unexpected family gaming device.
According to NielsenIQ, the console market share broke down as follows:
- PS5 – about 47% of all console hardware sales
- Switch 2 – about 24%
- New Playground – about 14%
- Xbox – below Nex Playground’s share
What Nex Playground Actually Is
Nex Playground is a small Android console with a built‑in motion camera, very Kinect‑like but designed to be plug‑and‑play for families.
It launched in 2023 at around 250 dollars but is often discounted closer to 200, which makes it feel more like a fun gadget than a big console commitment.
Why It Suddenly Took Off
The explanation for this sudden surge is pretty clear:
- It’s a mix of easy, casual games for all ages (including Fruit Ninja-style titles).
- The setup is super simple.
- Pricing that fits the impulse-buy zone for holiday shoppers.
- There’s also clear appetite right now for active-play devices that get kids and families moving in front of the TV again.
Surprise Momentum Before Black Friday
Nex Playground actually managed to outsell the PS5 in the week ending November 22, just before Black Friday week kicked off. That brief lead shows it wasn’t just a one‑day promo spike but something that had been building for at least a couple of weeks.
“Industry Blind Spot”
Rob Fahey at GamesIndustry.biz called Nex Playground a device going after an “industry blind spot,” using a very Nintendo‑style approach:
- low cost
- accessible design
- toy‑like feel
- older, cheaper hardware under the hood
The UK Contrast
In the UK, Black Friday was even more skewed toward Sony, boosted by big PS5 discounts and a strong week for PS5 Pro, with the console share breaking down as:
- PS5 – about 62% market share,
- Switch 2 – roughly 23%,
- Xbox Series – around 10%,
The big picture in the console market 2025 is that price and timing matter more than ever. PS5 leaned hard into discounts for Black Friday, while Xbox struggled with weaker deals and lower demand, which pushed more shoppers toward Sony and other options.
The Return of Motion Gaming
At the same time, motion gaming is quietly coming back. Kinect‑style devices like Nex Playground work well for home fitness, simple family games, nostalgia for Wii/Kinect days, and the fact that you don’t need to learn a controller to have fun.
When Microsoft dropped Kinect, it never really replaced it, so there was no modern, mainstream motion‑gaming box for years. Nex Playground is now filling that gap with a small, family‑focused motion camera system, and early Black Friday results show there was more demand there than most people thought.
If a cheap, toy‑like device can grab real holiday share, it suggests casual hardware could become its own competitive space again, alongside the big consoles and handhelds. Nex Playground’s success hints that a lot of players still want active, social, easy‑to‑pick‑up games.