The most popular game console on Black Friday 2021 isn't the PlayStation 5 — it's the $300 Xbox Series S

• Microsoft's $300 Xbox console, the Xbox Series S, is having a great Black Friday.
• Unlike the highly sought after PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles, the Series S is actually available to buy.

An unlikely video game console is dominating sales on one of the biggest shopping days of the year: The $300 Xbox Series S console from Microsoft, according to the Adobe Digital Economy Index.

Though Sony's PlayStation 5, Microsoft's Xbox Series X, and Nintendo's Switch OLED models remain the most highly sought after consoles, chip shortages and high demand have rendered them nearly impossible to find.

The Xbox Series S, on the other hand, is readily available at a variety of retailers right now — from GameStop to Best Buy.

Among the "over one trillion visits to U.S. retail sites" measured by Adobe, the Xbox Series S was among the top selling items thus far for Black Friday 2021.

It certainly doesn't hurt that the Series S is just $300 (at least $100 less than the competition, and $200 less in some cases), and is capable of playing this holiday's biggest games: "Forza Horizon 5," "Halo Infinite," and "Call of Duty Vanguard."

Similar to Sony's PlayStation 5, which comes in two versions, the Xbox Series S is an "all digital" console, meaning that it doesn't have a Blu-ray disc drive to play games. The only way to buy games is digitally, through the Xbox digital storefront, and they run off the console's hard drive.

The Series S is significantly smaller than the $500 Xbox Series X, and is intended as the entry-level Xbox console.

Paired with Microsoft's wildly popular Game Pass subscription service, the Series S is one of the least expensive options for people who want access to some of the most popular modern games.

That the console doesn't use bleeding edge technology has been a sales hindrance for the console in the past year among the earliest adopters of the most recent PlayStation and Xbox console generations. Now, that flaw appears to be an advantage to Black Friday shoppers.

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