Key Takeaways
- Nex Playground sold over 600,000 units in 2025, four times its 2024 volume, and outsold Xbox Series X/S during Black Friday week according to Circana market intelligence data
- The $250 console uses camera tracking to enable active play in living rooms, with CEO David Lee describing it as an option “when outdoors is too hot, too cold, too dark, too wet”
- The company evolved from HomeCourt, a basketball shot-tracking app that went viral during COVID-19, after retention data showed 10x improvement when users connected to TVs
- A subscription model funds continuous content development, with 20 new experiences created in 2025 plus platform updates, eliminating per-game purchases
- The console operates in over 5,000 North American stores, with most locations sold out, and plans international expansion in 2026
Basketball Training App Pivot Leads to Console Development
Nex Playground originated from sports training technology. Founder David Lee worked eight years at Apple building web applications before launching HomeCourt in 2017, a mobile app using smartphone cameras to track basketball shots and training drills.
During COVID-19, the training games went viral among families confined indoors. User data revealed a retention pattern: iPad users showed 3x better retention than phone users. When users connected devices to TVs, retention increased 10x.
“We were basically building for the wrong platform,” Lee said in an interview published December 18, 2025. “We needed a 65-inch iPad.”
UK broadcaster Sky contacted Nex about bringing its Active Arcade games to Sky Live, a camera accessory for TVs. Following that partnership, Lee searched for similar platforms globally but found none. The decision to build Nex Playground followed.
Active Gaming Model Targets Weather-Limited Outdoor Play
Lee describes the console as addressing a specific constraint for families with young children. The product serves as what he calls “a good alternative to outdoor, when outdoors is too hot, too cold, too dark, too wet.”
The camera-based system requires physical movement and tracks up to four people simultaneously with no controllers. The console’s graphics capabilities match PlayStation 3 levels, approximately 10 times more powerful than the original Wii according to Lee, while maintaining a $250 retail price.
According to a December 15, 2025 New York Post review, parents describe the console as keeping children “entertained and moving for hours.” The publication notes reviewers call it a “must for family game night” and a “modern version of Wii,” with multiple shoppers stating it helped families stay active unlike traditional sedentary video games. The console meets kidSAFE+ COPPA safety standards and does not store motion data in the cloud, according to the company.
Subscription Revenue Supports Year-Round Content Production
Nex operates on a subscription model rather than individual game purchases. Lee states this structure benefits families with young children seeking to avoid repeated purchase requests while providing Nex with predictable revenue for ongoing development.
In 2025, the company created 20 new experiences plus platform updates. “Games that don’t need to have a business model on their own, the creative freedom just explodes,” Lee explained. “We can try that and see whether the customers like it.”
Licensed properties make up a significant portion of the library. Bluey ranks consistently in the top five games on the platform. Other partnerships include Sesame Street, Peppa Pig, Barbie, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, How To Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda, and Zumba.
“Bluey is very popular,” Lee said. “We also put our heart into making that game great, because it’s supposed to be how Bluey is like. In Bluey, the Heeler family play games, and we want [kids] to be able to play games just like Bluey and Bingo do.”
Half of the 2025 game lineup came from external studios as Nex expanded beyond its three internal development teams. Following Black Friday performance, Lee reports inbound interest from studios seeking to develop for the platform, though Nex maintains a curated approach rather than operating as an open platform.
“I don’t want to turn it into some monetization engine for other games,” Lee said. “We want it to be, ‘Hey, this is the platform designed fully, and from the ground up, to serve our audience.'”
Retail Expansion Accelerates After Buyer Testing
Nex Playground launched in 2023 with 5,000 direct-to-consumer units that sold out before release. In 2024, retail advisors recommended waiting until 2026 to pursue brick-and-mortar distribution based on the modest pre-order numbers.
“They said: ‘You’ve only sold 5,000 units in a pre-order campaign. You can think about going into retail in 2026. Take it slow,'” Lee recalled.
Buyers at Walmart, Best Buy, and Target tested samples with their own children and requested inventory. Target stocked half its stores, Walmart added 100 locations, and Best Buy placed the console in 225 stores. Approximately 1,000 US stores carried the console in 2024, selling through 150,000 units by Cyber Monday morning.
For 2025, Nex set a target of 550,000 units and surpassed it during Black Friday. “We thought [our initial target] was a bit crazy already,” Lee said. The company has flown in inventory to meet demand across more than 5,000 retail locations. “We are in over 5,000 stores, and basically everybody’s out,” Lee noted.
Circana data shows Nex Playground outsold Microsoft’s Xbox Series X/S during the Black Friday shopping week, according to the New York Post. November 2025 marked the worst month for console hardware in 30 years for traditional gaming platforms.
The console now retails for $250, up from its 2023 launch price of $199, according to the New York Post. A three-month Play Pass subscription provides access to the full game catalog, which receives monthly updates.
International Growth Planned for 2026
Nex currently operates exclusively in the US and Canada. International expansion begins in 2026, with Lee expressing a long-term goal of placing a Playground “in every living room” globally.
Lee studied the Wii’s market trajectory, which expanded the gaming audience before declining as casual users purchased limited titles. “If we build a platform and people come in and buy a couple of games and that’s it, the whole system is not sustainable,” Lee said. The subscription model aims to maintain ongoing engagement and justify continued content investment.
“We created a product that’s 100% family aligned and solving real problems,” Lee said. “We can count on that to keep investing in content. We have much more creative freedom to pick what games we create.”
via: The Game Business / NYP
image: polygon
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