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Microsoft has recently revealed that the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S had the most console sales ever in the company’s history.
As mentioned before, 2020 was an incredible year for gaming, as it saw the biggest growth in game sales for years. This growth was fueled by the global pandemic, which saw people throughout the world stuck at home, unable to contact friends and family. They were all eager to find some way to have some kind of meaningful social interaction.
Xbox Series X and S sells out with more to come
The Xbox Series X and S released on November 10th of 2020, and sold out almost immediately. Much like many of the other high-demand electronics, the Xbox Series X and S were bought en-masse by scalpers and resellers hoping to capitalize on low supply in order to make some easy money.
But since the initial release, more consoles have been supplied, and Microsoft has been proud to report that the Xbox Series X and S have led to a 51% increase in the company’s gaming revenue. Reportedly, this increase in console sales coincided with a surge in subscriptions to their Xbox Game Pass.
This makes 2020 a very strong year for Microsoft’s gaming department, and will likely lead to further emphasis on entertainment as a core sales strategy for Microsoft.
Why gaming has been safe during the COVID pandemic
Gaming as an industry is one of the only areas that has actually seen growth during the pandemic, as many other luxury goods have declined and dwindled. This is because people across the world have had to budget even more than usual.
Gaming has been safe mostly due to the fact that development and consumption of games can be done while maintaining safe social distancing practices. This is more pronounced with consumption, as the modern infrastructure for gaming is so well developed that players can purchase, download, and play the newest games on PC, Xbox, or Playstation, without ever having to leave their houses.
Development is a little more difficult, though smaller studios have been able to adapt without having to make too many adjustments. Larger studios have struggled because the physical space is a major organizational tool for those with hundreds of developers.
It’s likely that game development studios will rethink their development strategies in the future in order to better accommodate for situations where the physical location used for development isn’t usable for some reason.
