The PlayStation 5 sold out of NEX Playground, a plug-and-play motion-controlled console, for a week. After getting off to a bit of a rocky start in 2020, Sony's flagship console has consistently topped the console sales charts in the years since, often battling the Nintendo Switch for the top spot. For a brief moment in November, however, the PlayStation 5 lost its spot to a device not made by one of its biggest competitors.
Overall, it's been a big year for the PS5. The console celebrated its fifth anniversary and was inching ever closer to the PS3's lifetime sales figures. As of June, the PS5 had sold over 80 million units globally, making it within half of the legendary PS2's lifespan. Despite all these impressive achievements, the console has still faced stiff competition, and in at least one case, that competition has come from an unexpected place.
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NEX Playground outsold the PS5 for a week in November
According to game analyst Mat Piscatella at Bluesky, the NEX Playground surpassed the PS5 to become the second best-selling console in the US for the week ending November 22, 2025. Piscatella later told IGN that the NEX also stands as the fifth best-selling platform in the US for the year so far behind the Switch, Xbox 5, PS2 and PS5, right behind the PS5, Switch and X. While it may have only lasted a week, it's still a significant milestone for NEX. The PS5 has sold more units than every Xbox console, so beating it, even momentarily, is no small feat, especially for a system with no name recognition from Nintendo or Microsoft.
NEX Playground is a motion-controlled system similar to the Xbox Kinect in that it uses a camera to observe players' movements and translate that movement into game inputs. PlayStation has also tried similar concepts in the past, with the EyeToy for the PS2 and the PlayStation Move controllers, which are more similar to Wii remotes, for the PS3 and PS4. While both efforts have managed to sell at least a couple of million units worldwide, neither has really stood the test of time. Xbox's camera-based motion control accessory was also discontinued, although Kinect has received new games as late as 2021. Unlike Kinect or EyeToy, however, NEX Playground is completely plug-and-play, so users don't need to buy another system or buy any additional games to use it.
Like the PS5, the NEX Playground isn't exactly new. It came out in 2023, but it has only recently gained enough momentum to land among the giants Xbox, Sony and Nintendo. At an MSRP of around $250, it's also much cheaper than the PS5, Switch 2, or Xbox Series X/S, which likely helped it make it through the sales charts. However, its one-week rise was still not enough to take the top spot. That honor belongs to Nintendo with its latest console. Considering how the Switch 2 is Nintendo's fastest-selling system in the company's history, that's not a huge surprise, but temporarily beating the PS5 is a worthy feat in itself.
It's interesting that the number one best-selling console for the week before Thanksgiving also supports motion controls, even though they're not the main feature of the Switch 2. It's unclear if this signals the potential for motion controls to make a wider comeback, or if the NEX Playground's price point and kid-friendliness have helped it rise in popularity at a time of high costs. Regardless, Piscatella was impressed, saying this was the first time he'd seen a plug-and-play system rank so highly. Even if it loses number two, as Piscatella expects it to finish the year closer to number five, it's proof that there is room in the console market for players other than Nintendo, Sony and Xbox.
