Alongside PlayStation and Nintendo, Xbox has stood out among the leading game console brands of the 21st century. Like its competitors, technological advancements, including future Xbox technology that could allow you to digitize physical games, and price inflation eventually caused the brand’s consoles to rise in price as they advanced and produced new systems. Thus, its current generation consoles, the Xbox Series X/S, are much more expensive than their ancestor, the original Xbox, from 25 years ago.
As of September 2026, the Xbox Series An Xbox Series S, which only plays digital titles, is much cheaper than its sister console, between $499.99 and $599.99 MSRP.
Conversely, the retail price of the original Xbox was just $299 when it launched in November 2001. That figure comes to about $564.59 when adjusted for inflation. Like any retro console, the Xbox naturally had less complex hardware, features, and functionality than its six-year-old cousins, the Series X/S. This price, however, does not take into account the current price of your original Xbox on the resale market; some consoles sell for as little as $48, per price chart. Graded consoles and special editions, on the other hand, could be worth thousands of dollars.
Xbox prices are rising quickly
Upgrades in hardware, technology, and features, as well as inflation, naturally caused Xbox prices to increase over the years as Microsoft continued to produce new consoles. The original Xbox’s successor, the Xbox 360, originally matched its parent console’s retail price of $299.99 in 2005, although it also offered a premium edition that sold for $100 more. Other versions of the console, including the Xbox 360 Elite, have bumped the price up to $479.99 due to upgrades such as increased storage and an HDMI port, as well as accessories that come with it.
The Xbox One was released in 2014 for $499. Later hardware revisions, including the Xbox One S, which came in 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB models, were offered for $299, $349, and $399, respectively. Their beefier sibling, the Xbox One X, was unveiled in 2017 as a 1TB model that sold for $499. Even today, prices for current-generation Xbox consoles are rising rapidly before consumers’ eyes. Before the Xbox Series X/S hit its 2026 MSRP, the consoles initially cost $499 and $299 when they launched in 2020.
However, both have increased by around $200 to $300 depending on the model and edition you choose, giving gamers a good reason not to wait to buy an Xbox Series Whichever one you choose, it’s inevitable that you’ll buy something much more expensive than the retro device you used to campaign in “Halo 2” and randomly drive around in a fictional state in “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” back in the day.
Gn tech
