Xbox Series Sales Fall 39% in the UK in 2025 for Worst Year Ever for Xbox - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 January 2026 / 6,472 Views
Xbox console sales have had its worst year ever on record in the UK for the year of 2025, according to the editor-In-chief and co-founder of The Game Business Christopher Dring on social media.
Xbox Series X|S sales fell 39 percent year-on-year in the UK in 2025. VGChartz estimates has Xbox Series X|S sales at 456,553 units in 2024, which would mean about 278,500 units were sold in 2025. VGChartz estimates has Xbox Series X|S sales in 2025 at 226,653 through November, which would put December sales around 51,900 units.
This would bring lifetime Xbox Series X|S sales in the UK to about an estimated 3.28 million units at the end of 2025.
"Sales of Xbox consoles were down 39% in the UK during 2025, making it comfortably the worst year on record for Xbox consoles," said Dring. "With the return of favourite Xbox franchises in 2026, might things improve this year?"
The Xbox franchises Dring is talking about are the currently planned releases of Halo: Campaign Evolved, Gears of War: E-Day, Forza Horizon 6, and the Fable reboot. 2026 is the 25th anniversary of Xbox and Halo.
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 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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What a shame. The Xbox Series X is a good console, but Microsoft wasted its potential.
At this point it's totally confusing. They have delivered such a high standard in terms of quality build since the One S/One X. The Series X was following that path brilliantly. All of this for going all in on game pass which has lost its value for the money.
A 39% drop isn't as bad as I would have expected, considering everything they did in 2025
No advertising, no support, constant price rises... And stock shortages?
Expected.
Doesn't do much good when retailers are removing Xbox consoles and software from shelves, that brand awareness of the platforms existence is just evaporating.
I guess 35~ million hardware units isn't the worst thing in the world, but it would be nice if there was a reason to power on my console in the last few years.
There are not many, but it is definitely possible: https://www.power.dk/gaming-og-underholdning/xbox/xbox-konsoller/xbox-series-s-konsol/p-3827939/?q=xbox - https://www.nordic-gamers.dk/shop/konsol/konsoller/microsoft-xbox-series-x-black-edition/?utm_source=pricerunner&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=pricerunner
We are at the point where sales are so low that its hard to actually get lower. A 40% decline puts it at sub 300k for the whole year... in their second biggest market. A 40% decrease next year will get it below 150k during for the launch year of GTA6... which seems unrealisticly low
Less than 300K in their second strongest market, damn.
I would have been one of those UK customers, if Microsoft had not removed my wallet balance of over £125 without any notice. Apparently, you cannot hold a wallet balance, even if it is YOUR money, for more than 4 years. I never managed to get my money back. From that moment, I ceased being a Microsoft customer.
Good, I've been boycotting corrupt and criminal m$ forever!!
Trust me, you ain't missing out on anything
Money deposited into your wallet, and redeemed purchased gift cards, should never expire. Only promotional gift cards from things like Microsoft Rewards expire 90 days after being redeemed and are removed from your wallet.
If that £125 wasn't from MS rewards or some other promotion, then you have been screwed. Because that is not meant to happen even after 4 years.
It was actually a refund for custom xbox controllers purchased right at the end of the OG program for Xbox One controllers which Microsoft could not fulfill. They gave me the refund back as store credit and I held on to it until I could buy a Series X 2TB. It was removed from my account and customer support refused to reinstate it even after multiple communications back and forth, stating that it counted as special promotional balance. Their excuse was very dodgy but I gave up after trying to sort it out over several weeks. I just stopped being their customer and I am sure it's their loss after having every single XBOX console and dozens of games across each gen. I also cancelled my Ultimate membership shortly thereafter by letting it lapse and not renewing it.
Refund must have been a promotional credit with an expiration date then. Yeah that's terrible.
Weird, I personally bought 4 Xbox's this year...
Don't understand how they are doing so bad?
- NS2 (an Xbox)
- PC (an Xbox)
- iPhone (an Xbox)
- 2nd PS5 (an Xbox)
the stuff he writes is nonsense about xbox doing better in 26 with the series x/s is nonsense.. They would have to try to do bundles,promos and price cuts and that aint happening, they have clearly moved from the series x/s consoles. They have that very clear, it makes no sense for them to push series consoles this late in the gen.
This is so sad. I really love my Series X.
Expecting that to be xbox's worst year worldwide too. They made all the wrong choices in 2025
I thought the fable reboot has been canceled? Is it still planned to be released?
This is Microsoft we are talking about, anything can happen.
I wouldn't blame them for cancelling. Lets be honest, a lot of western studios are underwhelming. It might be better to take a tax write off and close another studio. MS has other IPs they could focus on. Even the Bethesda remasters have more sales potential than a Fable game.
I know people will complain about another Xbox cancellation, but I think its in development hell because it sucks.
Once the prices starting going up, MS guaranteed my gaming future as a PC gamer. I will keep using my current Xbox hardware, but consoles are dead to me at this point. I simply don't respect any of the three.
If MS wants me to buy their next hardware, it needs to be a PC at this rate.
I would be interested to know which country outside of the US has sold the most series S/X consoles.
The UK is likely a contender for that position. It definitely historically been the strongest Xbox country in Europe.
