A machine you've almost certainly never heard of just spent a week beating the PS5 as the second best-selling games console in the US behind the Switch 2
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Jordan Gerblick
2025-12-04
The Nex Playground, an Xbox Kinect-type motion-controlled games console, has quietly spent a week outselling both the PS5 and Xbox Series X as the second best-selling hardware in the US.
As reported by Circana senior director Mat Piscatella, the number-one best-selling games console in the US for the week ending in November 22 was the Nintendo Switch 2 Mario Kart World bundle - not a huge surprise given the system recently released and has been a massive success. But what followed the Switch 2 is hugely surprising, as it doesn't start with an X or a P. It's the Nex Playground, a console I'm admittedly hearing about today for the first time. In third place is the PS5 Slim Digital, and Piscatella's data report ends there. "So that's neat," he said.
US best-selling hardware SKUs for week ending Nov 22, 2025, ranked on units sold:
1) NS2 Mario Kart World Bundle
2) NEX Playground Interactive Gaming System
3) PS5 Slim Digital 1 TB
So that's neat.
Source: Circana Retail Tracking Service— @matpiscatella.bsky.social (@matpiscatella.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2025-12-04T00:25:17.360Z
US best-selling hardware SKUs for week ending Nov 22, 2025, ranked on units sold:
1) NS2 Mario Kart World Bundle
2) NEX Playground Interactive Gaming System
3) PS5 Slim Digital 1 TB
So that's neat.
Source: Circana Retail Tracking Service
The Nex Playground actually came out back in 2023, which adds to my surprise at only just now discovering it. To be fair, though, it is explicitly designed for kids and families, and I'm an adult man with no kids.
The PS5 has now outsold every Xbox in history as its latest 84.2 million sales milestone places it ahead of the Xbox 360
Nintendo Switch 2's massive momentum continues as it surpasses 10 million sales in 4 months, hitting the milestone 5 months faster than the OG Switch
Nintendo Switch sales are almost neck and neck with the DS, just 10,000 units away from dethroning the beloved 2004 handheld as the company's best-selling console of all time
Anyway, Nex CEO David Lee has billed it as an unofficial "spiritual successor" to Microsoft's Kinect, using a wide-angle camera and an AI-powered engine to track your movement and negate the need for any traditional game controller. The console originally cost $199, but its price was increased to $249 in May 2025. The Nex Playground includes five motion-controlled games; Fruit Ninja, Starri, and Whac-a-Mole, Go Keeper, and Party Fowl; and you can access a whole catalog of games through the console's Play Pass subscription, which is $49 for three months or $89 for a year.
Apparently, those features and that pricing were attractive enough to randomly catapult the humble Nex Playground all the way to the number two spot of best-selling consoles, at least for a week. The impending holidays were likely a factor, but it's a mightily impressive feat regardless.
Since it nabbed the top spot, let's take a look at the best Switch 2 games available right now.
blueChip
Dec 04, 01:19 PM
Maybe worth it. Totally unrealistic. exactly this isn't a game, it's a masterpiece (in a good way). great for kids.
toastMachine
Dec 04, 11:29 AM
🐍 This is bland. % A bit annoying.: yo~ Something like that.
happyFrog
Dec 04, 10:19 AM
co-op is great. could be better.: yada yada yada
wifi_vampire
Dec 04, 09:29 AM
good accessibility. [removed]
404energy
Dec 04, 07:49 AM
What do you think about this? Highly underrated. bang on
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