The year began with smaller drops yes, however the more we enter into the year the bigger drops they become. XBSX went from selling ~80k per week to selling ~50k per week. It already became ugly. If the sales were steady from the start of the year, then I could agree it can have nice boost, and with steady sales month after month yes, even 6M seemed fine. But with those drops getting bigger every single month, and doing barely 100k in US, I can't just agree it comes July and the steady sales every month begin, and nice holiday boost comes, and 5M+ for the year is there, finishing only 30% down from 2023 (which is still ugly in it's 4th year). The trend points, but the trends also pointed for a level very close to last year, and we are the half of the year and last year it was almost 2.2M by end of may, and now is barely 1.5M. How I can have faith in what the trend points, when I believed it should do something on par with 2023, and Microsoft instead of helping the system to sell more, they help it to sell less. Closing of studious, revealing new models without pricecuts, and even one that is the most expensive one, and increasing the price of gamepass. They act like they are market leader, not the market underdog.

You don't seem to know that CF 25 is a highly anticipated game for a lot of people, over 2 million spent extra to play it a few days early so that's over 2 million sales already before the game even fully launches. On Xbox specifically it's not gonna have as big a launch as Starfield but this is absolutely a notable release so the gap in effect is not as large as you're making it to be.

And yes, Starfield absolutely has had weak reception overall. While it had a good launch and reviews negativity towards it quickly increased soon afterwards resulting in it having bad legs making it so its console sales boost was limited to its launch. You've made your feelings about Xbox well known so I'm surprised you're arguing that Starfield had good public reception when it has been one of Xbox's bigger blunders of the past couple years.

It seems that CF is bigger and more popular than I was giving it credit for, but when has a single sports game ever significantly improved the sales trends of a console? I have heard some anecdotal stories of people that work in retail in the USA, seeing Xbox Series S consoles selling out, but unlike Starfield the Amazon sales charts aren't backing it up. On Amazon USA CF is selling better on PS5, and the PS5 is ranked 13 in best sellers, with XBSS not even in the top 100. The XBSX has also stayed where it has always been, which definitely wasn't the case with Starfield. Both the XBSS and X had big jumps on Amazon during Starfield release.  

Yikes at the quarterly results.
A console in its 4th year being down 42% YOY is disastrous.
40 million is looking less and less likely; at this point the only Hail Mary it has left is if the Series S gets a boost from being the cheapest entry point to GTA6 next year, and by then the brand may be so dead in the water even that may not help much.

Yikes at the quarterly results.
A console in its 4th year being down 42% YOY is disastrous.
40 million is looking less and less likely; at this point the only Hail Mary it has left is if the Series S gets a boost from being the cheapest entry point to GTA6 next year, and by then the brand may be so dead in the water even that may not help much.