A new report is estimating Microsoft’s Xbox Series X|S shipments top 12 million units, making it the fastest-selling Xbox ever.
The new report that Xbox Series X|S shipments top 12 million units comes via Niko Partners, who also confirmed Microsoft’s Xbox division reported a 2021 FY revenue of $16.28 billion.
While the new 12 million shipped consoles is not an official number, Xbox’s reported revenue confirms 2021 was their best year on record, beating the previous high of 2020.
Furthermore, gaming revenue was up 17.7% year on year, and hardware revenue was up 63.3% year on year. Clearly, Microsoft’s gamble in having one high-end console and one mid-range console with now-easier to find components has paid off.
While supply chain constraints and chip shortages have prevented regular stock of new game consoles, users have regularly been able to find an Xbox Series S, their mid-range option that isn’t as affected by the shortages.
In comparison, Sony’s all-digital and optical-drive PlayStation 5 both have the same hardware and have been heavily affected by the shortages. Their last official shipments record was 13.3 million units shipped in later 2021, so Microsoft is quickly catching up in shipments.
The shortages and their affect on the demand for new game consoles was talked up by Xbox boss Phil Spencer.
“When you think about trying to go get an Xbox or a new PlayStation right now in the market, they’re really hard to find,” Spencer said in an interview with NYT. “And it’s not because supply is smaller than it’s ever been. Supply is actually as big as it’s ever been. It’s that demand is exceeding the supply for all of us.
“At this point, we’ve sold more of this generation of Xboxes, which is Xbox Series X and S, than we had any previous version of Xboxes,” Spencer said. “So it’s our job to get the supply there to meet that demand.”
Microsoft is pouring seemingly endless amounts of cash from their absurd reserves of cash – they recently announced plans to acquire publisher giant Activision Blizzard for nearly $70 billion. Their push for both Xbox hardware and Xbox Game pass is leading to both succeeding, Game Pass alone now boasts over 25 million subscribers.