The Nex Playground is a motion-controlled, cube-shaped console for ages five and up that’s selling like hotcakes. It came in third for home console sales during Black Friday week, according to sales data shared on Bluesky from Mat Piscatella of Circana, falling behind only Nintendo’s Switch 2 and Sony’s PlayStation 5. That’s an impressive feat for Nex, and not a great look for Microsoft’s Xbox consoles, which saw two price hikes this year.
If you missed your chance to pick one up at its 20 percent off sale price, you can do so now through December 14th. Amazon, Best Buy and Walmart are selling it for $199.
The Nex Playground includes the console itself, a remote for navigating its menus, a power supply and HDMI cable, as well as a magnetic privacy cover that snaps onto the Playground’s camera lens. There are a ton of games that you can download to the Playground — all of which are controlled by moving your body — although the console comes with just five to get you started (Fruit Ninja, Starri, Party Fowl, Go Keeper, and Whack-a-Mole Deluxe are all pretty fun).
If you want more, including a bunch of licensed games involving Elmo, Bluey, Care Bears, How to Train Your Dragon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Peppa Pig, you’ll need a Play Pass to access them. New games are added to the catalog every season, and are automatically downloaded to your Playground.
Update, December 11th: Updated to reflect the fact Amazon is now matching Walmart and Best Buy in terms of pricing.
