Best Consoles of 2020
Ranked by our critic's grades, best first.
The consoles of 2020, ranked by critic grade. It is a short list of three, all graded A, and that is the story of the year: strong hardware from both makers and a wait for the games to justify it. Microsoft launched the Xbox Series X at $499 and the Xbox Series S at $299, and Sony launched the PlayStation 5 at $499.
The Xbox Series X leads. Our critic calls it the best-engineered console of its generation, with twelve teraflops, near-silent cooling and the most thorough backward compatibility program going, paired with an exclusive lineup that took far too long to materialise. The Xbox Series S is second, a small, disc free, 1440p sibling at half the price sharing the entire library through Game Pass, and the console developers privately wish did not exist. The PlayStation 5 is third: the custom SSD and the DualSense are genuine leaps, but a cross-generation release schedule and a shroud the size of an air purifier hold it just short of the top tier.
With three A grades, the ranking is about what each gives up. Between the two Xbox machines the choice is a disc drive at $499 or a disc free 1440p machine at $299. Between the Xbox Series X and the PlayStation 5, at the same price, it is engineering and backward compatibility against the DualSense and the SSD, and our critic found both waiting on games.
Xbox Series XThe best-engineered console of its generation, quietly waiting years for the first-party games to arrive.Read the review
Xbox Series SThe cheapest way into a current generation library, and the console developers privately wish did not exist.
PlayStation 5A superb machine that spent its first three years playing last generation's games faster than anyone else could.