On Amazon, one of the bestselling items right now is the Xbox One X. Normally, this wouldn’t be news as the Xbox series of consoles are quite popular.
Unfortunately, the dramatic increase in Xbox One X sales is a recent occurrence, one that coincides with the pre-order date for the Xbox Series X.
It’s not just Amazon, either. On Best Buy, Target, and GameStop, the Xbox One X is out of stock.
While production of the Xbox One X was discontinued back in July, it is suspicious to see the console sold out across so many retailers all at once.
Putting two and two together, it seems like a lot of people accidentally ordered an Xbox One X while trying to pre-order the Series X.
Some of those “people” were likely bots that were likewise having a hard time figuring out which one was the right console (particularly on Amazon), which is wonderful karma.
However, we imagine bots aren’t the one and only reason for the massive increase in One X sales.
Oops, Looks Like Tons Of People Ordered An One X Instead Of Pre-Ordering The Series X
You know how people were saying that parents are going to order the wrong Xbox for Christmas based on how the consoles are named (One X, Series X, One S, Series S)?
Well, it looks like this might be less of a joke and more like the cold, hard truth.
On Amazon right now, one of the items that’s trending as a bestseller is the regular ol’ Xbox One X. Looking closer at the listing, it says there are only 5 left in stock… which is odd.
We typically don’t see that kind of a spike in sales unless there’s a discount, like when Xbox consoles are temporarily marked down for Black Friday.
The Xbox One X is priced at $554.00 on Amazon right now, so why are they almost out of stock? Why does it show a massive increase in the Xbox One X sales ranking?
Furthermore, why is the Xbox One X now out of stock at Best Buy, Target, and GameStop as well?
It’s painful to put down in writing, but it looks like people might have ordered themselves an Xbox One X while they were trying to pre-order an Xbox Series X.
As mentioned above, a high number of these mistaken One X orders were likely placed by bots having a hard time as Amazon’s pre-orders were an hour late, and the One X came up when searching for the Series X prior to pre-orders going live.
That said, bots didn’t seem to have too much trouble making life difficult for people trying to pre-order an RTX 3080 or PS5, much to the frustration of gamers everywhere.
Another possible reason for the low stock could also be in relation to Microsoft announcing back in July that they’ve stopped production of the Xbox One X. It’s only been two months since that announcement, but it’s worth mentioning.
Taking those factors into consideration, people buying the One X out of confusion remains a real possibility here. Both consoles are similarly priced and both consoles are the same color.
You could argue that while rushing to pre-order the Series X, worried they’re going to run out at any moment, people simply put the wrong item in their cart.
Or parents genuinely believed that was the console their kids were asking for.
“Was it the One X or the Series X? I think it must have been the One X… right?”
As terrible as this seems, there are a few good things about someone accidentally ordering an Xbox One X instead of the Series X today rather than launch day on November 10.
First, people will realize their mistake the second they get the Xbox One X in the mail sometime next week. When they see they’ve ordered the wrong console, retailers like Amazon will accept returns.
People can simply return the console and see if there are more Xbox Series X units available for pre-order ahead of the November 10 launch date, or wait to pick one up at the store.
There are options available, it isn’t November 10, it isn’t Christmas. There’s still time.
Walking into the store on November 10, we hope that anyone who needs extra help picking out the right console will be pointed in the right direction by knowledgeable staff.
We also hope that bots pre-ordered the wrong console, and scalpers are crying over the inability to deplete stock and jack up prices in order to make a profit.
No matter what happened today, the one thing we can all agree on is that scalpers suck, especially ones that use bots, and they deserve to suffer the pain of receiving dozens of One X consoles in the mail.
