Xbox Series S was ‘Black Friday’s most popular console’, it’s claimed

Microsoft’s $300 Xbox Series S was the most popular console during Black Friday, it’s been claimed.

According to Adobe’s Digital Economy Index data (first highlighted by Business Insider), the cheaper Series S outsold both PS5, Switch OLED Model and the more expensive Xbox Series X during the biggest holiday sale day of the year.

Adobe claims its data comes from analysing 1 trillion visits to retail sites, in addition to surveying over 1,000 retailers on their most popular items.

If accurate, a key element of Series S’s popularity is likely that, unlike the highly sought-after PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, Series S has been widely available to purchase during Black Friday week. At the time of publishing, it’s still in stock at many retailers.

Series S was recently estimated to have outsold the more powerful Xbox Series X in several key markets during the consoles’ first year.

That’s according to new data from Ampere Analytics,  which estimates that the digital-only console is outperforming the more powerful Series X partly due to supply constraints and component shortages.

“Microsoft’s two-tier product strategy was a bold move at launch of the Series generation and the lesser-powered Series S has come into its own against a backdrop of component shortages and Xbox Series X supply constraints,” wrote Ampere’s games research director, Piers Harding-Rolls.

At $300 / £250, the Xbox Series S console is significantly cheaper than the $500 / £449 Series X, thanks to lower specs than target 1440p gaming instead of native 4K.

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Xbox Series S is estimated to have outsold Series X in ‘several key markets’

The PS5 family has sold roughly double that of the Xbox Series consoles.

According to Ampere, the success of the Series S is said to be having a significant impact on Xbox digital game sales when compared to the PlayStation 5, which still positions its disc-based model ahead of the digital-only SKU in retail.

Microsoft’s head of gaming, Phil Spencer, has previously said he expects the Xbox Series S to outsell Xbox Series X over the course of the console generation.