The recent leaks of Microsoft’s court documents for its recent trial against the FTC have dominated the news cycle for several days now, and more new nuggets of information are still continuing to filter through. For instance, it’s now also emerged that out of Microsoft’s two current-gen Xbox consoles, the less powerful (and cheaper one) had a significantly larger share of the market than its counterpart, at least as of early last year.
That’s as per details in the recently-leaked documents (spotted by IGN), which reveal that as of early 2022, 74.8% of all Xbox Series X/S owners owned an Xbox Series S, as opposed to the Xbox Series X. Interestingly, industry analysts Mat Piscatela of Circana and Daniel Ahmad of Niko Partners have both stated to IGN that as per their estimates, the current split between the two consoles is much closer to 50/50, though the Xbox Series S is still the more popular console.
There are, of course, several factors at play here. Though the Xbox Series S is a noticeably weaker machine in terms of its hardware, as a current-gen console available at a significantly cheaper price, it nonetheless poses an attractive option for consumers (even if many in the industry have spoken about the hardware’s problematic nature from a development perspective).
It’s also worth noting that for a couple of years after the Xbox Series X and S came out, global semiconductor shortages had a significant impact on supply chains for both consoles (and others outside of Xbox), though the latter was in much better supply than the former, and saw much better sales as a result- which is why it also makes sense that by now, with supply chains having normalized for all hardware, the gap between the two has closed to a great extent, if the aforementioned analyst estimates are correct.
Several other breaking stories have also emerged as a result of the recent Microsoft leak in recent days, including the company’s early plans for a cloud hybrid next-gen Xbox console, mid-gen all-digital Xbox Series X refresh, a new Xbox controller with haptic feedback, and Bethesda’s full slate of upcoming titles, including Fallout 3 remaster, a new DOOM game, and more.