Alex Wu fights off cartoon bad guys in his living room while his 4‑year‑old times a perfect jump. It’s the exact scene Nex had in mind when it built a tiny cube that turns bodies into controllers: active, chaotic, and undeniably fun.
Sales that snuck up on everyone
What started as a niche, controller‑free system has quietly become a holiday hit. Research firm Circana put the Nex Playground among the country’s top consoles for late November — second for the week ending November 22 and third for the week ending November 28 — and a Black Friday price cut helped turn curiosity into mass purchases. The company moved more than 300,000 units in the dozen days leading up to Nov. 22, and analysts now say Nex is on track to sell roughly 600,000 consoles this year, up from about 150,000 last year and only a few thousand two years ago.
The discount was simple: the cube dropped from $249 to $199 for Black Friday, and that bargain, plus influencer buzz and celebrity mentions, briefly emptied shelves and sent resellers to eBay. If you want one now, it’s still available on Amazon at the discounted price while supplies last.
Why parents — and investors — are paying attention
Nex isn’t trying to beat Sony or Microsoft on graphics or AAA lineups. Its pitch is behavioral: fuse gaming with movement so kids (and sometimes parents) get exercise without it feeling like a workout. The system’s depth comes from a camera and AI that tracks full‑body motion, paired with curated, family‑friendly licenses like Bluey, Barbie and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. There are also fitness modes and downloadable seasonal content behind a Play Pass subscription — the full catalog often requires an extra fee, which helps the company monetize beyond hardware.
That family focus has real-world pull. Nex executives and early investors point to stories of grandparents joining in, children with disabilities finding new ways to play alongside siblings, and celebrities amplifying the product online. Those narratives helped the device cross from novelty into a gift people actually hunted for over the holidays.
From a scrappy app to a surprise console contender
Nex’s roots aren’t in hardware. The startup began with HomeCourt, a motion‑tracking app for basketball training that gained traction during the pandemic. The team then spun out an “Active Arcade” approach and eventually the physical Playground cube, launching in late 2023. Company insiders say revenue has jumped from single‑digit millions to projections north of $150 million this year — a turnaround that surprised even the people inside the company.
Alex Wu, a University of Virginia alumnus and Nex’s VP of strategy and partnerships, has been central to winning licensed deals and shaping the product’s family‑first image. His pitch to partners — he says he’ll “guard the brand” because he’s watched shows like Bluey with his son countless times — helped land high‑profile collaborations that make the console more appealing to parents looking for recognizable characters.
How big is big — and can Nex keep it up?
Context matters. Selling a few hundred thousand units in a year is massive for a small startup but still dwarfed by the juggernauts. Nintendo’s Switch 2, for instance, has shipped in the millions — a reminder that while Nex has captured a seasonal moment, the company is still tiny compared with platform holders who sell tens of millions of units. For perspective on console scale and momentum, see how mainstream hardware is performing in the market and why that matters for developers and consumers in the longer term: Nintendo’s Switch 2 sales surge.
Sustainability will hinge on several levers: maintaining retail availability after the holidays, expanding third‑party content without diluting the family focus, and balancing hardware margins with subscription revenue. The Black Friday discount was a catalyst — and you can read about other holiday‑period pricing dynamics that shaped this season in our roundup of deals earlier in the month: early Black Friday offers and how they moved products.
What the product actually feels like
Play sessions are physical. You’ll be jumping, lunging and waving to slice virtual fruit or fending off enemies. Parents report that games aren’t addictive in the classic sense — many are designed so you eventually get tired like after a pickup game. That’s part of the appeal: it’s a screen‑based activity that often ends because your legs give out, not because you keep chasing digital rewards.
Critics will point to limitations: no access to console blockbusters, a smaller library compared with PlayStation or Switch, and an ongoing dependence on a subscription for deeper content. But for households that want a social, movement‑oriented option (and for relatives who want a simple plug‑and‑play gift), Nex fills a niche that big console makers haven’t prioritized.
A company to watch — for better and worse
Small startups scale fast or crash fast. Nex’s holiday run shows how price, timing, licensing and a clever product proposition can combine into a breakout year. Whether it becomes a perennial presence in living rooms or a seasonal flash on retail charts depends on post‑holiday supply, software cadence, and whether families keep returning after the novelty fades.
Either way, for a lot of parents the memory that matters is simple: a kid and a grown‑up tired and laughing on the carpet, controller nowhere in sight.