Good news, everyone: Xbox has been saved.
Please ignore the multiplatform strategy, the studio closures,the executive departures, the ballooning console prices and the vague sense that Microsoft would rather sell you an Xbox without actually having to manufacture an Xbox. None of that matters anymore, because sales of the Xbox Series X|S jumped by a whopping 86% in the US during June.
Break out the champagne. Cancel the obituaries. Xbox is back, baby. Well, provided you squint. Hard. And maybe down a couple of shots.
According to Circana’s latest US sales data, Xbox Series X|S unit sales were up 86% compared with June 2025, while revenue from console sales more than doubled. That made June the brand’s strongest month of 2026 so far, and Xbox was reportedly the only major console platform to record year-on-year growth during the month.
Those are undeniably good numbers, especially given the seemingly endless torrent of doom surrounding Xbox hardware. Microsoft has spent the past few years watching console sales decline while steadily releasing more of its games on PlayStation and Nintendo hardware, leaving everyone wondering whether it still views the humble plastic box beneath your television as particularly important.
Unfortunately, this particular miracle comes with several fairly chunky caveats.
The biggest is that June 2025 was an especially miserable month for Xbox. Microsoft had increased console prices only a few weeks earlier, while the newly launched Nintendo Switch 2 was busy rampaging through the market and devouring everyone’s disposable income.
In other words, Xbox is being compared against a very weak month. An 86% increase sounds spectacular, but percentages become much easier to inflate when the original number is lying face-down in a ditch.
Circana has not publicly provided a raw Xbox sales figure, either, so we cannot see exactly how many consoles were sold. Xbox still finished behind both the Switch 2 and PlayStation 5 in terms of units and revenue, and remains third across the year so far.
Still, Xbox deserves some credit. However favourable the comparison may be, selling 86% more consoles than last year is better than selling 86% fewer. That is the sort of cutting-edge financial analysis you come to Wolf’s Gaming Blog for.
There are also a few possible explanations for the sudden increase.
Retailers offered discounts on Xbox consoles throughout June, making the hardware substantially more attractive than it has been recently. Microsoft then announced that Xbox prices would rise again in August,with some models increasing by as much as $150 in the US.
That announcement only came near the end of June, so it cannot explain the entire increase. However, it may have encouraged people who were already considering buying an Xbox to grab one before Microsoft finished bolting another sack of money onto the price tag.
The broader US hardware market was also fairly grim during June. Total spending on consoles fell sharply compared with last year, although that is again heavily influenced by the Switch 2’s enormous launch in June 2025.
So, has Xbox hardware finally turned a corner?
Probably not. One strong month—especially one compared against an unusually weak previous year—is not enough to declare a comeback. We will need several months of sustained growth before anyone can confidently say the Xbox console business is recovering. If it even can.
But for once, Microsoft has received some genuinely positive Xbox hardware news. Sales went up, revenue more than doubled and the Series X|S had its best US month of the year.
Xbox is saved. Just keep squinting.
