Xbox Series X/S launch sales reach new high for Xbox in the UK, but still far behind PS4

The launch of Xbox Series X/S has been Microsoft's biggest in the UK.

Xbox has had a good first week for Series X and Series S sales in the UK, the console's second-biggest market. The two consoles shifted 155,000 units combined on launch day.

That's according to a report by VGC, who spoke with unnamed publishers. This means Xbox Series X/S managed to beat Xbox One's 2013 150,000 launch haul, though only slightly - itself a record for Xbox in the UK at the time.

It did not, however, manage to beat Sony's impressive 250,000 units, which the PS4 managed to sell in its first 48 hours on sale. That figure remains the UK's biggest ever for a console launch, and has yet to be bested. It also came in below a number of other console launches from PlayStation, including the PS3.

According to the report, which has since been corroborated by Niko Partners senior analyst Daniel Ahmad, two-thirds of the units sold were Series X consoles, leaving one third for Series S.

VGC points out that pre-orders for Xbox Series X/S were significantly higher compared to previous generations, which limited the number of units available for sale on day one. This would explain why Phil Spencer recently had to apologise for the console's stock shortages, a situation Microsoft said will continue until March or April.

Microsoft already revealed that Xbox Series X/S sold more at launch than any previous Xbox console globally, but seeing as the company is no longer interested in sharing exact unit sales, we'll have to wait for industry chatter to learn how many units were actually sold.