When the incredibly highly anticipated Xbox Series X was first revealed in December 2019 after years of waiting by millions of fans eager for a hint of what the new era of future gaming would be and look like, the internet erupted. The noise was partially due to the obvious anticipation for the next generation of gaming, but also because it was impossible to ignore that the console’s design looked like a refrigerator.
Image by Xbox
And so, over the course of the next 11 months leading up to the official release of the Xbox Series X, the idea for the Xbox Mini Fridge was born from memes shared across the internet and even Microsoft joined in on the joke. Fast forward to over a year later in April of 2021, and Xbox found itself in the final of Twitter’s #BestofTweets Brand Bracket against Skittles. In order to help pull out the victory in the championship showdown Aaron Greenberg, Xbox Games Marketing General Manager promised to make the Xbox Mini Fridge a reality if his company got the W, and after receiving 50.5% of the vote, plans for the production of the Xbox Mini Fridge were put into motion.
The final version of the Xbox Mini Fridge was finally unveiled in June and fans were not disappointed but many were shocked that Xbox had followed through on the promise. The Mini Fridge is built to hold up to 12 standard 12oz cans and is powered using an eco-friendly thermoelectric cooling system. This system utilizes a fan that pulls warm air out of the fridge to keep beverages up to 36 degrees below the temperatures of their surroundings, rather than using toxic chemicals such as refrigerants that are found in most traditional refrigerators.
For more hardcore gamers that are familiar with all of the features that the Xbox Series X has to offer, there are a few little easter eggs hidden in the Xbox Mini Fridge. For starters, you can find a small button on the Mini Fridge’s door in the same place as the sync button on the Series X. When you press this button on the Mini Fridge, the LED Xbox logo in the upper corner lights up. The button that would normally eject discs on the Series X also appears on the Mini Fridge, but pressing it will actually illuminate the green LED light on the top of the Mini Fridge that gives it a futuristic glow. Finally, a small USB port is also included on the front door where you can plug in any compatible USB cord and keep your Xbox controllers (or your phone) at full power.
At first, Target was the exclusive dealer of the Xbox Mini Fridge and it listed the internet icon for presale on their website in October 2021 for a retail price of $99.99. The fridge sold out almost instantly on the day of the drop. Around the same time as this initial presale, Microsoft announced that they had no intention of making the Mini Fridge a limited release and that restocks would be coming in the future. Despite this, the Xbox Mini Fridge began to see its first trades on StockX reaching prices as high as $999. However, these high resale prices did not last long once the Xbox Mini Fridge began to ship in mid-November. Nearly as quickly as the first release sold out, prices on StockX began to drop from $170 to $140, to where it has now sustained right around $123.
With prices dropping to just above the initial retail price right at the height of the holiday shopping season, the Xbox Mini Fridge took off on StockX being the number one traded item week after week. Today, the Xbox Mini Fridge has been traded over 6,300 times on StockX and shows no sign of slowing down, as it continues to be available for the absolute lowest price around.
