Microsoft’s Xbox had its worst year ever in the UK in 2025, as Nintendo Switch 2 sales surpass the Wii U within six months.
While we know Sony’s PlayStation 5 has far surpassed sales of the Xbox Series X/S, the lack of concrete numbers from Microsoft means it’s never been fully clear how much it’s sold.
An earnings report from Take-Two Interactive suggested Xbox Series X/S sales were around 28.5 million worldwide as of February last year, while insiders in August claimed it hadn’t yet crossed the 30 million mark. For a comparison, the PlayStation 5 has sold 84.2 million worldwide, while the Switch 2 has shifted 10.36 million units within six months.
Sales of the Xbox Series X/S have naturally declined since it launched over five years ago, but according to new data, 2025 was Xbox’s worst year on record in the UK.
According to games journalist Christopher Dring, sales of Xbox consoles in the UK were down 39% in 2025 compared to 2024, ‘making it comfortably the worst year on record for Xbox consoles’.
While last year was generally tough for all console platforms, with PlayStation 5 sales down by 12% in the UK, the sharper downturn for Xbox is significant because sales were already low to begin with.
You can point to multiple reasons for this steep decline. The price of the Xbox Series X/S is still sky high five years later, and the console didn’t receive a significant discount during the Black Friday sales. Microsoft’s strategy has also changed over the past few years, where it’s porting many of its exclusives to PlayStation 5 and promoting its subscription service, Xbox Game Pass, rather than the console itself.
Despite Microsoft’s declining presence in the console space, the company has said it is developing hardware for the next generation. Microsoft has described it as a ‘very premium’ product, implying it will be closer to a high-end PC.
While the next consoles from Microsoft and Sony have been rumoured to launch in 2027, the RAM shortage might prolong the lifespan of the current generation.
Elsewhere in UK sales, the Switch 2 has outsold the lifetime sales of the Nintendo Wii U, Sega Dreamcast, and PlayStation Vita in the country within six months, according to NielsenIQ data.
Did you buy an Xbox in 2025?
-
Yes
-
No
As posted by Dring on X, these Switch 2 sales are ‘a reasonable chunk above’ the original Switch sales in 2017 too. In its first year, the Switch sold around 700,000 units in the UK, so while there’s no specifics around Switch 2 sales yet in the region, it’ll likely be near the 800,000 mark.
The UK has never been a big market for Nintendo, but it’s a promising sign for the Switch 2’s future when it’s already passing these milestones so early in its lifespan.
Don’t miss Gaming news! Add us as a Preferred Source
As a loyal GameCentral reader, we want to make sure you never miss our articles when searching for gaming stories. We have all the latest video games news, reviews, previews, and interviews, with a vibrant community of highly engaged readers.
Click here and tick Metro.co.uk to ensure you see stories from us first in Google Search.
Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter.
To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.
For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.