With the future of Microsoft’s console prospects having becoming vague and dreary, I would like to take a moment to reflect on the past decade of Xbox. In particular: What made Xbox One and (during the early years) Xbox Series X|S so successful?

Motivation. When I first was exposed to video games (besides Skylanders and childhood GCN games), the year was 2017. I looked at Nintendo and Sony, and I saw two systems which offered great value propositions. In particular, each system featured a wide variety of highly esteemed games which could be played on none other than their respective hardware. So, it was understandable where their success came from. But turning my sights unto Xbox, however, I see… nothing? At least, nothing in the foreseeable future beyond Cuphead.

Now, let me be clear, that’s not to say XBOne truly had no exclusives, but rather, specifically from the perspective my naïve little middle schooler eyes, there was no system-selling gangbusters with 90+ on MetaCritic that I could see.

With XBOne nearly hitting 60mil LTD and seeing some of the best holiday seasons ever for Xbox (e.g. NA Holiday 2017), and the XBSXS initially outpacing XBOne’s already very strong start, I was always so perplexed. And with the recent collapse in Xbox hardware, it seems the general public has finally caught up to my initial perception.

So… that leads me to this thread. Who was the market of consumers purchasing an Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S? And why?

And I’m making this post, I come across this on ResetEra:

The fact that people couldn’t buy a PS5. Not even joking, even though I generally prefer Xbox.

Lots of people don't care about exclusives and generally just play for Call of Duty, GTA, Madden, FIFA, NBA 2K, etc. yearly. That kept XBox in the game as it always had those franchises.

There have been a few news stories that make it seem like a lot of the XS's early popularity was due to the S version attracting a lot of new audiences. And that would make sense; if you are entering console gaming circa 2020 or 2021, meaning you have no older games to play on your new machine, and one of the options is $200 cheaper with all of the same games? Who cares if it's digital only if you were going to buy your games digitally anyways.

https://web.archive.org/web/20211217034133/https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/xbox-series-s-set-a-record-for-new-players-at-launch-microsoft-claims/

https://web.archive.org/web/20220118113732/https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2022-01-18-36-million-games-and-3-4-million-consoles-sold-in-the-uk-in-2021-uk-annual-report

Early PS5 shortages probably also helped.

There isn´t a generic console-buying audience.
One could consider the entire world that audience, but it´s actually very fragmented.
And Xbox´s audience was/is concentrated in markets where it had been most successful.
In the US, ¨Xbox¨ had practically become the generic name for console.
(necessarily in the sense of lower-info and lower-engagement consumers - who are relevant when you are talking of mega-selling items)
So in that bubble, Xbox definitely was the ¨status quo¨ expectation that had sales inertia, including thru generations.
Obviously outside this bubble / in ¨the world as a whole¨ things were different, but that information is muted to consumers in this bubble.
Additionally, it seems clear to me that Xbox has ALWAYS done disproportionately well early in it´s generation, while lagging later on.
Whether that is Xbox specific, or just specific to the audience in these ¨Xbox bubble¨ markets which Xbox focused on, I can´t really say.
But it clearly had it´s appeal to early gen adopters, which means it gets established as more relevant than it´s long term market share justifies.
This gen also had chip shortages which Xbox benefitted from both on having already signed deals, and Series S being easier to produce.

Xbox One had a large fanbase from the 360 to carry over, and it still had exclusive titles. It would have done a lot better without the infamously bad pre-release PR and the $499 forced kinect bundling. Though Xbox One first party took a notable downward turn compared to the 360 too. Forza Motorsport, Halo and Gears were all shadows of what they used to be.

Xbox Series compared to Xbox One I'd say is a fairly positive comparison. I think in general their games are better and the hardware was more price competitive. But the brand was in a worse place at the start of the Xbox series era and their games were no longer exclusive. Day one on PC eventually took its toll once that spread to the public consciousness.

Xbox One had some of the 360 install base carry over and the introduction of Game Pass and the appealing hardware of One S and One X.
Xbox Series did well at first (at least in the US and UK) because of PS5 shortages and that there were some people who were going to buy the console no matter what.
Xbox One did well enough early on but Microsoft made some changes that ensured it sailed past 50 million units (closer to 60 million units)
As a console, Microsoft gave up on Xbox Series probably around early to mid 2023. Hardware sales have plummeted because Microsoft acts like they don't give a darn, so why should customers?

The Series S + Game Pass Ultimate was an amazing deal. Pretty much the perfect entry into this gen. Now, neither are good deals and MS have told us all, don’t buy an Xbox coz there’s no need. So what do you expect.