November 27th 2012 11:35 am PT

Xbox 360 Black Friday Report

I just checked the internal data for our Black Friday numbers* and wanted to let you know that over the Holiday weekend:

Xbox 360 sold more than 750,000 consoles in the U.S. alone –exceeding internal forecasts.
Xbox LIVE Gold Subscription sales increased more than 50 percent compared to last year’s Black Friday week.
We saw incredible activity on Xbox over the weekend. For example, on Sunday alone we had more than 14 million people on Xbox LIVE across the world, racking up more than 72 million hours of use in just one day.
Compared to 2011, we’ve seen a 43 percent increase in U.S. entertainment application hours logged on Xbox LIVE during the week of Black Friday.

* Sunday, Nov. 18 – Friday, Nov. 23

Update: Clarified some of the wording

Xbox 360, Xbox Live By Larry Hryb, Xbox LIVE's Major Nelson

permalink: http://majornelson.com/2012/11/27/xbox-360-black-friday-report/

bnlf

wow!!! 750k?
- bill
  
  yep, 750k people who next year this time, will be looking at the latest xbox 720, priced at $350-400 and saying, but i just bought this xbox 360 last year..
  - bnlf
    
    many wont be upgrading as soon as it launches and many only paid $150-199 for the console. Ppl buy new smartphones every year for $600 i dont think $199 is that much for a console which is far from dead. Either way thats at least 12 months of pure fun
http://twitter.com/GlennZA Glenn Alexander

Very impressive and just crazy stats!
750K consoles in the US alone…. insane.
http://twitter.com/pcedfeldt Paul Cedfeldt

handily beats the WiiU 400K number
- Hobsie
  
  Ofc it does, how do you sell more than 400k when you only had 400k to sell?
  - BostonSup
    
    You do have a point. Nothing against either company or judging quality of one or the other. If anything, Nintendo probably should have (if possible) made and shipped much more systems before Black Friday.
    - Hobsie
      
      Apparently I angered a few people Yeah the 360 numbers are brilliant, but they’re also almost 3 times as much as the 360 sold in its first launch week as well. I’m quite certain Nintendo will have tried to get as many available for launch as possible, but they also have the European and Japanese launches coming up. Lets not forget that when the PS3 went on sale in the US they only managed to ship about 200k – I’m sure they tried to get as many out as possible as well.
      - http://www.facebook.com/people/Curtis-Isabell/1036013363 Curtis Isabell
        
        you didn’t anger anyone you brought up a good point, it will be interesting to see where the wii-u goes in comparison to 360/ps3, ps3 seems to be hitting it’s stride xbox is losing gamers and gaining casuals everything is a mess.
    - shmuga9
      
      Actually Reggie said they haven’t even sold out yet so… ya…
      - http://www.facebook.com/wes.shuman Wes Shuman
        
        They are sold out online and in Hawaii. Otherwise I would have maybe been the 400,001th sale.
      - http://www.facebook.com/people/Curtis-Isabell/1036013363 Curtis Isabell
        
        since black friday I haven’t seen any online at any store near me, I call that sold out.
Calum Young

I HOPE YOU GUYS ENJOY YOUR MONEY. MAYBE GIVE US SOME FREE XBL, PSLSLSLLS.
http://twitter.com/KerBob97 Ker Bob

I continue to be amazed at how the Xbox brand is growing and maturing. Who would have thought 10 years ago we would be interacting with people all over the world, using a phone with a Google OS, or a Tablet from Apple to control all our entertainment experiences. Keep up the great work, and grow that user base.
Rickard Olsson

Congrats, MS! Keep fighting the good fight! Looking forward to another amazing year with Xbox and Live!
Heiermann

Unbelievable numbers. Congrats
Hobsie

Brilliant numbers, there’s life in the old dog yet!
Yi Xu

What I really like to see is the stats for those Deal of the Week sale, Black Friday and Cyber Monday DLC and game sale data. Then we can talk how impressive the figures are.
Rohan Mayers

I am not part of that number because I do not have Xbox Live Gold
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_44UDGK42PNJVRWVS57IVEKMK2A Donald

Looks like the 360 has a solid 2 years more in it! No real need to release a system for another two years. It had better have lossless surround, 1080P(4K option) standard on all games, no jaggies, 3D, tessellation and cinema quality graphics like that Panderia TV ad,
- TonyLN
  
  I am guessing 2 years to the Xbox release. I can’t imagine they would release it without Halo 5, and there are 2 years between Halo games.
  
  As far as loss-less surround & 4K I don’t think you will be seeing those this generation. The Xbox already has 3D & no jaggies – it’s up to the developer supports it, but I think both will be easier when the new model comes out… We will be a step closer to Cinema Quality Graphics; but I don’t think we will see it fully realized for another 5 – 10 years even on PC games.
  - http://twitter.com/karlcramer Karl Cramer
    
    Xbox 360 launched without a Halo game. In fact, it took two years after launch for Halo 3 to come out.
  - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_44UDGK42PNJVRWVS57IVEKMK2A Donald
    
    The 360 has jaggies. You get jaggies with highly detailed games like a GTA 4, and no jaggies on low detailed games like a kiddy game. I want full 1080P graphics without jaggies!
    
    When I say 3D, I mean 3D as in the movies 3D, not 3D graphics. I also see that triangle counts are not something they brag about these days. I hope that doubles so that we can get graphics like that Panderia ad – THAT should be the future of games. Anything less won’t be good enough!
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/Curtis-Isabell/1036013363 Curtis Isabell
    
    iirc halo 2 took like 4 years to release or something. also we REALLY need a new console, 360 is just so limited now, I am thinking they will announce this e3 or around then though a lot of companies are saying they are only working on next gen now, I know if I don’t see a new console soon i’l have to buy a pc for gaming, and I really don’t wantto do that.
    - Ruben
      
      Im with donald, whe need a big step up from the graphics we are having right now, if not then why would people buy a new console, if it doesnt look better than the ones we have right now. I would like that 3D support, like the PS3 it seems like there is way more games than for the 360.
      - http://www.facebook.com/people/Curtis-Isabell/1036013363 Curtis Isabell
        
        as someone with both consoles, there are lots of great games on ps3 compared to 360, but the unsung games are the good ones on ps3, infamous, resistance and stuff are ok, but the really good games are their arcade games, fat princess is amazing dust 514 is coming soon hopefully ( free to play FPS) they also have DC universe online for free and a few other good arcade games
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003976957614 Willy McBurgle
  
  Howabout a console that actually HAS the power to render at 1080p for starters? The Xbox ’720′ can come out whenever it wants – I’m done waiting and after recent experience with fighting over an update-induced problem, I’m done with Xbox.
ungeheier

Hey Major, how about stats on how many complaints about the XBLA sales, or how poorly those did to regular sales.
- Thânia Santos
  
  you might be surprised they were actually good
  naturally, just as you, I do not know.
  but some peoples are interested in games like expendable 2…
  and GTA sales for a third time this year? (it is the third time, right?)
  why not …. if it is profitable for Microsoft … why would they stop …
  even if we are all complaining here…
http://twitter.com/GreenMistt Miller

Do you want me to get you a ladder?…. So you can get over it.
- http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/blog.php?u=324759 Tylerh1701
  
  I laughed at this. Nice job.
m1nh0ca

And what about the Arcade games that were in promotion? Did you sell an expressive number?
http://twitter.com/karlcramer Karl Cramer

The Xbox 360 went on sale in 2005 so this is its eighth holiday season. That’s impressive staying power.
Clifton Jones

Great news to hear! More profit is always a plus!
XboxLive

Why just the Bans, All my friends are switching to console unlocked. This is very bad for the game companies….
Calum Young

nunu
http://twitter.com/McStorm_ Jason

M$ decided yo moderate my last 2 messages
LOL Seriously how low can this company sink.
Russell Gorall

Hurray for huge corporations.
Lee Rayson

Congrats on the numbers but this doesn’t help the shoddy deals we had over the weekend. with figures like that throw us some highly discounted games or even a free game, I’m sure there some games that no one buys throw one of them at us for free i think it would shut the complainers up for a whileSomethinggn for Xmas would be nice to shoappreciationon to Loyal Customers.

An i dont mean the 10 yr customer im talking about the people who been gold member since having xbox, the ones who spend tons of money on content.

I didn’t even get the free avatar helmet and i been around for 6 years not 1 day as a free member either
JoeGrahamcracker

Makin’ movies makin’ songs and fightin’ round the world
- JoeGrahamcracker
  
  Can you tell me what the plan is to take over America again? I forgot
http://twitter.com/seekul Luke Es | sE ekuL

Let’s see, over the weekend I played some Fable 2 and Banjo-Kazooie N&B. Just bashing through the back catalogue. Did you know that Bottles is going to star in Killer Instinct 3? 8^)
http://www.facebook.com/people/Curtis-Isabell/1036013363 Curtis Isabell

gold members should get some free stuff every month like PSN+ members, I mean, some games psn+ gets sucks, but when you get resident evil 5 gold, dungeon defenders, infamous 2, and a bunch of other games for cheaper then gold membership it makes you think, why am I still here.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Curtis-Isabell/1036013363 Curtis Isabell

you can buy all the GTA IV DLC for $15! or, buy the complete edition of the game for $15.
fsdfg dsfds

I reckon ,what they should do is let Silver users play online for free but only Gold users get to use all the crappy apps , There is more then enough adverts on Live now to justify free online
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Curtis-Isabell/1036013363 Curtis Isabell
  
  I’d bet all my money if they did this 30%+ of the gold users would stop paying, they should give gold users free games like PSN+.
fsdfg dsfds

I bet most of these sales are from people replacing there RROD and DVD drive failure Consoles, im on my 4th…
http://twitter.com/theandy1 Andy

I’m curious about how many the copies the MS-Store sold. $15 was such a bargain I bought one for each xbox.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003976957614 Willy McBurgle

This just in: ‘Gold Subscriptions up, Value down’
http://www.theshadowgamer.com/ theshadowgamer

almost doubling wii u’s sales in a week. definitely giving recognition to microsoft and the xbox brand once again. congrats!
Volitar Prime

Two stats that I would love to see from the weekend are how many games were sold during that incredible sale that the MS Store had and also how many 1/2 off 1600 point cards Target sold. I bought 9 games and 10 of the cards
http://twitter.com/ISAMU_MkII オミナエ　イサム

For a company that don’t care (offering decent deals every week) much about the “real” loyal customers, it’s a “impressive numbers.”
Ruben

And people said they were gonna lose money if they gave us more points for the achievements reward thing
Michel Simmons

Only 14 million ppl on Xbox Live imagine how much more traffic Live would have if it were free to play online.

November 27th 2012 11:35 am PT

Xbox 360 Black Friday Report

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