Summary
- The Spectrum, a modern remake of 1982’s ZX Spectrum, outsold some notable top consoles in Spain last month.
- The 5,500 Spectrums sold meant it outranked the PS5 Pro and Xbox Series X|S.
- Particularly impressive since the Pro had just been released and there were three new Xbox models on the market.
It’s no secret that Xbox has been struggling to sell consoles during its Series X|S generation, but its poor sales numbers in Spain last month have dealt the studio its most unique body blow to date. Only 3,500 Xbox Series consoles were sold in the Mediterranean nation in November 2024 which meant it was comfortably outsold by the ZX Spectrum.
For those of you old enough to know what a ZX Spectrum is, and the rest of you who just Googled it, while being outsold by it in 2024 is still bad news for Xbox, it’s not quite as shocking as it appears on the surface. The 1982 platform didn’t experience a shock resurgence last month. The Spanish sales numbers shared by YouTuber St1ka (via Generacion Xbox) are actually for The Spectrum, a modern-day remake of the original ZX Spectrum which was released in November.
That explains why the retro console sold so well in Spain last month, but it out-performing not only the Xbox Series X|S but also the PS5 Pro is still a big deal. Xbox released three new console models in October and clearly, in Spain at least, the Galaxy Series X and the two other new offerings from Xbox failed to move the needle.
The Spectrum Outsold The PS5 Pro And Xbox Series X|S In Spain Last Month
Retro Gaming Is King In Spain, Or At Least It Was In November
Even without the comparison to The Spectrum, the breakdown of normal PS5 sales compared to the Pro is incredibly telling. The PS5 was far and away the best-selling console in Spain in November, shifting more than double the second-placed Nintendo Switch. However, just 2,300 of the 71,000 PS5s sold in Spain last month were Pro models. November was launch month for the PS5 Pro, so grim reading for PlayStation to see just three percent of console sales be for its newly released model.
Sales for one month in one country naturally won’t be representative of the bigger picture, but for The Spectrum to outsell the PS5 Pro and Xbox Series consoles in a month where new models were released is a significant win for the retro console, regardless of the market and its sales window. That said, Xbox consoles have typically struggled in Spain. According to SomosPlayStation, the PS4 outsold the Xbox One by 12 to one in Spain.
It’s not just Spain where Xbox is struggling on the hardware front, though. The latest figures confirm that PS5 sales are more than double that of the Xbox Series X|S so far. Analysts have predicted only one console platform will survive beyond the next generation alongside Nintendo, it already seems as if Xbox is preparing for a world where it isn’t trying to compete with PlayStation in the console space.
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PlayStation 5 Pro
With the PlayStation®5 Pro console, the world’s greatest game creators can enhance their games with incredible features like advanced ray tracing, super sharp image clarity for your 4K TV, and high frame rate gameplay*. That means you get to play PS5® games with the most impressive visuals ever possible on a PlayStation® console.
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Xbox Series X
Launched in 2020 in conjunction with the Xbox Series S digital-only console, the Series X is the disc version of Microsoft’s premier gaming platform.
