Xbox Series S Accounts for 'Almost Half' of All Xbox Series Sales in the UK - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 14 November 2021 / 5,680 Views
The Head of GamesIndustry Christopher Dring via Twitter revealed the Xbox Series S accounts for nearly half of all Xbox Series console sales in the UK.
Since the console has no disc drive it does mean the Xbox has the highest percent of digital software sales of the main three main platforms.
"Almost half of all Xbox Series consoles in the market (UK market) are of the S-variety, which has no disc drive," said Dring. "Xbox’s digital strength is the biggest of all 3 platforms."
To compare, the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition accounts for less than 20 percent of the total number of PS5 consoles sold in the UK.
Xbox Series S is the entry level next-generation console from Microsoft and is priced at $299.99 / £249.99. The higher tier Xbox Series X is priced at $499.99 / £449.99.
Almost half of all Xbox Series consoles in the market (UK market) are of the S-variety, which has no disc drive. Xbox’s digital strength is the biggest of all 3 platforms
— Christopher Dring (@Chris_Dring) November 14, 2021
In the UK, the disc-less PS5 accounts for less than 20% of the overall install base. So PS5 is naturally going to do better at physical retail than Xbox (but not as well as Switch)
— Christopher Dring (@Chris_Dring) November 10, 2021
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. In 2017, he took over the VGChartz hardware estimates. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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If there were enough series x around, the series s wouldn't be selling
I've said it before in the UK sales split thread that Xbox had a way higher share of its sales be digital, but people dismiss it. It's pretty much useless to make comparisons based on the weekly UK Boxed Charts data. Some people like to believe that Xbox is doing worse than ever in software sales revenue, even though evidence points to the contrary. Oh well.
Series S has been very available in the UK. Even occasionally found at lower than RRP. Sales might be 50/50 but demand for Series X is far higher.
Ermm…. They are both sold out, so this is just the proportion shipped. It had nothing to do with popularity…
Series S is not sold out in the UK at all... it's almost always in stock. You can get one from Amazon UK right now. But you're right that due to Series X being out of stock saying the Series S is just as popular because it's sold the same isn't correct. Series X has much higher demand but can't sell more.
That can't be true. A certain thread here shows that physical sales tell the big picture of how well Xbox is doing in the UK.
/s
As much as people might desire the more powerful PS5/Series X experience in theory, in practice the Series S is actually the more sensible purchase for most.
I have a TV that can do 4K and 120 Hz, but it's only HDMI 2.0 so it can't do both at the same time. So I have to choose between resolutions higher than 1080p, or 120 Hz. That means on my TV I'm getting maybe 90% of the Series S experience on that panel, but might only get 40-60% of the PS5 or Series X experience.
And, really, in fast motion from across the room, the average person would barely detect any fidelity differences between most games running on a Series S vs. that same game on PS5 or Series X. We like to think that we're all game connoisseurs, but I bet even a lot of participants in this forum couldn't tell the difference. And of the hundreds of millions of console purchasers, almost none of them would be able to tell the difference.
As for storage, the 802 GB of useable space on Series X, and especially the 665 GB of useable space on the PS5, is inadequate for me anyway, so I'm going to expand the storage no matter what console I get. So having to expand the storage on Series S wasn't a downside. I actually don't prefer to use the internal drive for anything other than the OS for ruggedizing purposes, since SSDs wear out. I have the expansion card for games upgraded for the Velocity Architecture, a USB SSD for games that aren't Velocity-upgraded, and a USB HDD for storage of rarely-played games (that I nonetheless don't want to delete yet). I'd do much the same if I had a Series X or PS5.
And then you have the long-term potential for AI-enhanced up-scaling and game streaming to keep lower-end systems more relevant.
So if people did a real analysis of what they actually need, I would think the Series S should be selling as well or better than Series X. And I say this as someone who only got a Series S because I couldn't get a Series X, but has come to realize that was a happy accident and that I was mistaken to think that the Series X would have been the better purchase for me.
Right now, sure. Among the early adopters, there's no contest. Of course more are going to prefer Series X. I had hoped to get a Series X too. It was only getting a Series S (and later the opportunity to compare it a co-workers' Series X) that I realized it wouldn't make enough of a difference for me, on my HDMI 2.0 TV.
And when you say the majority don't care about 120 FPS. I don't think the majority have either a TV that can do 120 FPS or a TV that can do 4K. If you wanted to target what the majority can do, you'd first target 60 FPS, as that's something even 720p and 480p TVs can do. 4K is a nice option, and 120 FPS is a nice option, and I haven't seen any research about which is more popular, have you?
Having played several 120 FPS games, it can be transformative. For some genres of games more than others. But having played Titanfall 2 and other 120 FPS games.... hot damn.
But we're not talking about the majority yet, we're talking about early adopters. The majority are in countries like India, Brazil, etc. Series S is going to sell better in these countries than Series X will.
Phil Spencer himself predicted Series X would be in higher demand initially, but that Series S would sell better in the long-run.
Oh, the famous "UK split" that is defining the gaming market in this new era.
