Skip to footer

Xbox One sales hit 2 million globally: Microsoft

The Xbox One is departing shelves at a rate of 111,111 units a day, Microsoft says. 

|
Reuters
A family picks up an Xbox One video game console at a Toys 'R' Us store during a Black Friday Sale in New York, on Nov. 28, 2013.
  • By Matthew Shaer

On Nov. 22, Microsoft officially launched the Xbox One, the long-awaited successor to the Xbox 360. Twenty-four hours later, a million of the devices had been snatched up. Now, a couple weeks after its debut, Microsoft says it has passed the 2 million sales mark worldwide.

Moreover, the Xbox One is reportedly leaving store shelves at a velocity of 111,111 units a day – a record for a Microsoft gaming device. 

"Demand is exceeding supply in our 13 launch markets and Xbox One is sold out at most retailers," Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president of strategy and marketing for Xbox, said in a Microsoft press statement. "We’re also particularly excited to see consumers engaging in a wide range of games and entertainment experiences on the platform, with more than 1 million paid transactions on Xbox Live to date." 

Couple things to note here. First: There is a time-honored tradition of hyping up demand – as Mr. Mehdi does above – and touting exactly how "sold out" an item happens to be. Why? Well, because no one wants a piece of technology that no one else wants. We want the piece of technology that everyone wants, and more than that, we want to be able to brag to our buddies that we managed to find it in the midst of a shortage. 

Similarly, in the run-up to the launch of the PlayStation 4, Sony brass repeatedly hinted that supplies were going to be tight, but promised that the company was "going to work very hard to make sure that every consumer that wants one gets one." Bottom line: When reading manufacturer-released numbers on the newest gadget, it's always best to remember that the company is making those figures public for a reason. 

Interested in trying to get your hands on an Xbox One? Check out our review round-up first.  

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Xbox One sales hit 2 million globally: Microsoft
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/Horizons/2013/1211/Xbox-One-sales-hit-2-million-globally-Microsoft
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe