A name that is synonymous with gaming worldwide, Xbox is one of the most successful video gaming brands out there that has been going strong for more than two decades and continues to dominate the video game console industry to date.
Created and owned by Microsoft, the line of Xbox consoles started all the way back in 2001 with the Xbox console, and ever since then, there have been quite a few successors to the original.
If you would like to know everything about each Xbox console that has been released to date—sales numbers, system specifications, best-selling games, and more—you’ll want to continue reading below.
Every Xbox console in order of release
Xbox
The original Xbox was Microsoft’s first foray into the gaming console market. Being a part of the sixth generation of video game consoles, the Xbox competed with Sega’s Dreamcast, Nintendo’s GameCube, and Sony’s PlayStation 2. The Xbox was the first console offered by an American company after the Atari Jaguar ceased sales in 1996.
The integrated Xbox Live service launched in November 2002 allowed players to play games online with a broadband connection. Xbox Live first competed with Dreamcast’s online service, but later majorly competed with PlayStation 2’s online service even though Xbox Live was paid as compared to the other two which were free, simply due to possessing better servers, better features, and better milestone titles.
Related: How to fix Xbox error 0x80190190
The name Xbox was derived from a contraction of DirectX Box, which is a reference to Microsoft’s graphics API.
Global release dates
- North America: Nov. 15, 2001 (Discontinued on March 2, 2009)
- Japan: Feb. 22, 2002 (Discontinued on June 4, 2006)
- Australia: March 14, 2002 (Discontinued on March 2, 2009)
- Europe: March 14, 2002 (Discontinued on March 11, 2007)
Specifications
- Introduction price: US$299, €479, £300, AU$435
- Storage: 8 or 10 GB internal hard drive (formatted to 8 GB with allotted system reserve and MS Dash), 8 MB memory card
- Controller input: 4 × Xbox controller ports
- CPU: Intel Pentium III – 733 MHz
- GPU: NVDIA NV2A – 233 MHz
- Memory: 64 MB DDR SDRAM
- Hard drive: 8 GB HDD
- Optical drive: CD Rom, DVD Rom
- Video output: S-Video, SCART (RGB)
- Network: Fast Ethernet
- Audio: 5.1 Surround sound, stereo
- Code name: DirectX Box
- Generation: First
- Units sold: 24+ million (as of May 10, 2006)
Best-selling games
- Halo 2 (8.46 million)
- Halo: Combat Evolved (5 million)
- Sneak King (3.2 million)
- Fable (3 million)
- Grand Theft Auto Double Pack (2.49 million)
- Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell (2.4 million)
- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (1.58 million)
- Counter-Strike (1.5 million)
- Ninja Gaiden (1.5 million)
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (1.46 million)
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 was released to be the successor of the original Xbox, competing with Nintendo’s Wii and Sony’s PlayStation 3 as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles. The console sold out completely upon release in all regions except Japan.
The Xbox 360 showed an expanded Xbox Live service, with Microsoft also releasing Kinect, a motion control system for the Xbox 360 which uses an advanced sensor system.
Two major revisions of the Xbox 360 were released after the initial launch, the Xbox 360 S, launched in 2010, and the Xbox 360 E, both of which provided convenient specs upgrades to the original console.
Global release dates
- US/CA: Nov. 22, 2005
- EZ/NO/SE/UK/CH: Dec. 2, 2005
- JP: Dec. 10, 2005
- CO/MX: Feb. 2, 2006
- KR: Feb. 24, 2006
- HK/SG/TW: March 16, 2006
- AU: March 23, 2006
- CL: July 7, 2006
- IN: Sept. 25, 2006
- ZA: Sept. 29, 2006
- CZ/PL: Nov. 3, 2006
- BR: Dec. 1, 2006
- RU: Feb. 11, 2007
- PE: Feb. 25, 2008
- UAE: Oct. 28, 2008
- NG/TR: 2009
- SC: Spring 2010
Discontinued: April 20, 2016 (Worldwide)
Specifications
- Introduction price: US$299, €299, £209 (Xbox 360 Core), US$399, €399, £279 (Xbox 360 – 20 GB)
- Storage: Detachable hard drives (20, 60, 120, or 250 GB), Memory cards
- Controller input: 4 × Xbox controllers + 4 Big Button Pads
- CPU: Microsoft XCPU (Xenon), 3 cores – 500 MHz
- GPU: R500, Xenos chip by ATI – 500 MHz
- Memory: 512 MB GDDR3 RAM
- Hard drive: 250 GB HDD
- Optical drive: 12x DVD
- Video output: HDMI 1.2a in/out
- Network: Ethernet, IEEE 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi
- Audio: Multichannel 5.1 Surround Sound
- Code name: Xenon
- Generation: Second
- Units sold: 84 million (as of June 9, 2014)
Best-selling games
- Kinect Adventures! (24 million)
- Grand Theft Auto V (22.95 million)
- Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition (21 million)
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (14.72 million)
- Call of Duty: Black Ops (14.55 million)
- Call of Duty: Black Ops II (13.7 million)
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (13.7 million)
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (13.49 million)
- Halo 3 (12.13 million)
- Grand Theft Auto IV (11.1 million)
Xbox One
The Xbox One was released to be the successor to the Xbox 360, competing with Sony’s PlayStation 4, as well as Nintendo’s Wii U and Switch as part of the eighth generation of video game consoles.
The Xbox One put an emphasis on internet-based features, such as the ability to watch cable or satellite TV through the console with an enhanced guide interface and Kinect-based voice control, as well as streaming and recording gameplay.
At E3 2016, Microsoft announced the Xbox One S and one year later at E3 2017, the company would reveal the Xbox One X, the former being known for its compact form while the latter possessed improved hardware design.
Global release dates
- North America: Nov. 22, 2013
- Europe: Nov. 22, 2013
- Australia: Nov. 22, 2013
- Saudi Arabia: Nov. 22, 2013
- Japan: Sept. 4, 2014
- China: Sept. 29, 2014
Discontinued: Aug. 2, 2016 (Worldwide)
Specifications
- Introduction price: US$499, €499, £429, JP¥49,980, CN¥3,699
- Storage: 500 GB HDD
- Controller input: Xbox Wireless Controller, Kinect for Xbox One, keyboard, mouse
- CPU: AMD 8 Core APU – 1.75 GHz
- GPU: AMD RadeonGCN architecture, 853 MHz
- Memory: 8 GB DDR3
- Hard drive: 500 GB HDD
- Optical drive: Blu-Ray/DVD
- Video output: HDMI 1.4 in/out, 4K support
- Network: Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi
- Audio: 7,1 Surround Sound
- Code name: Durango
- Generation: Third
- Units sold: 39.1 million (as of March 2018)
Best-selling games
- Grand Theft Auto V (8.72 million)
- PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds (8 million)
- Call of Duty: Black Ops II (7.37 million)
- Halo 5: Guardian (6.6 million)
- Call of Duty: WWII (6.23 million)
- Red Dead Redemption 2 (5.77 million)
- Minecraft: Xbox One Edition (5.43 million)
- Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (5.22 million)
- Battlefield (5.13 million)
- Fallout 4 (5.03 million)
Related: Best racing games to play on Xbox Game Pass (June 2023)
Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S
The fourth generation of Xbox models, simply called Xbox, includes the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S. Both these consoles are considered members of the ninth generation of video game consoles alongside the PlayStation 5, which also happened to release in the same month as the Xbox.
The Xbox Series X and Series S are high and low-end versions akin to the Xbox One X and Xbox One S models, respectively. Both consoles feature support for new graphics rendering systems including real-time ray-tracing and the new Xbox Velocity Architecture that maximizes the rate of texture streaming to the graphics processor.
Both consoles are fully compatible with all Xbox One games and most hardware, as well as all backward-compatible games that were playable on the Xbox One from the Xbox 360 and the original Xbox console.
Global release dates
- Worldwide: Nov. 10, 2020
Specifications
Xbox Series X:
- Introduction price: US$499, £449, €499, AU$749, CA$599
- Storage: 1TB SSD
- Controller input: Xbox Wireless Controller, All previously released Xbox One-compatible controllers and accessories (except Kinect)
- CPU: AMD Zen 8-core – 3.8GHz
- GPU: Custom RDNA 2 – 1.825GHz, 52 CUs, 12 TFLOPs
- Memory: 16 GB GDDR6
- Hard drive: 1TB NVMe SSD
- Optical drive: 4K UDH Blu-ray
- Video output: HDMI 2.1
- Release date: Nov. 10, 2020
- Generation: Fourth
- Status: Announced officially
- Units sold: N/A
Xbox Series S:
- Introduction price: US$299, £249, €299, AU$449, CA$399
- Storage: 512GB SSD
- Controller input: Xbox Wireless Controller, All previously released Xbox One-compatible controllers and accessories (except Kinect)
- CPU: Custom AMD 8-core Zen 2, 3.6 GHz, 3.4 GHz with SMT
- GPU: Custom AMD Radeon 20 CUs @ 1.565 GHz, 4.01 TFLOPS
- Memory: 8 GB/128-bit & 2 GB/32-bit
- Hard drive: 1TB NVMe SSD
- Optical drive: 4K UDH Blu-ray
- Video output: HDMI 2.1
- Release date: Nov.10, 2022
- Generation: Fourth
- Status: Announced officially
- Units sold: N/A
Most-played games
While there is no official data available on the best-selling Xbox Series X and S games yet, there is data available for the most popular games as of June 5, 2023. This list excludes free games available on the two consoles, however, such as Destiny 2, Apex Legends, and Fortnite.
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Minecraft
- NBA 2K23
- MLB The Show 23
- Forza Horizon 5
- Red Dead Redemption 2
- Madden NFL 23
- Dead by Daylight
