A Kinect for kids is outselling Xbox to become the hot console this holiday

3 hours ago 6

Terrence O'Brien

is the Verge’s weekend editor. He has over 18 years of experience, including 10 years as managing editor at Engadget.

It’s a small sample size, likely driven by Black Friday discounts and temporary virality, but the Nex Playground has gone from little-known console curiosity to best-seller. It’s now on track to quadruple its sales from last year. According to research firm Circana, the Playground was the second best-selling console in the US for the week ending November 22nd, and third for the week ending November 28th. In October, it wasn’t even mentioned by Circana’s video game analyst, Mat Piscatella.

The colorful cube got a steep discount for Black Friday, from $249 to $199, which is likely part of what drove sales, especially since Microsoft didn’t discount Xbox for the holiday. Sales of Microsoft’s console continue to tank, and prices soar. There’s also some draw for parents who want to keep their kids active and moving, but are tired of fighting about screen time.

After selling over 300,000 units in just twelve days leading up to November 22nd, the Nex Playground is on track to sell 600,000 for the year. That’s stunning growth for a company that wasn’t on many people’s radar a few months ago. And a heck of a turnaround for a company that started nearly a decade ago, building a motion-tracking iPhone app for basketball training, and almost went bankrupt along the way. According to the Wall Street Journal:

Two years ago, the company sold about 5,000 units of the Playground. Last year, that number was roughly 150,000. This year, it’s on track for 600,000. Before its pivot, Nex did about $3 million of annual revenue and wasn’t profitable. This year, the company is projecting more than $150 million of sales and says it’s on pace to finally break even.

The success even caught the company off guard, which briefly had trouble keeping the console on store shelves, leading to inflated prices on eBay. The big question will be if Nex can keep the momentum going after the holidays. And, while 600,000 consoles sold is impressive for a small startup, it pales in comparison to the over 10 million Switch 2s sold.

Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.