We all sort of know that Sony’s PS5 is outselling Microsoft’s Xbox Series X/S. Sony gives us sales data, Microsoft hasn’t in years. You generally don’t stay quiet about that stuff when the news is great. And new data seems to indicate what we all suspected: The Xbox Series X/S is getting shellacked by the PS5, with possibly two PS5s sold for every one Xbox.
Microsoft’s Xbox sales have been a mystery since 2016, when the company stopped reporting hardware sales. During Microsoft’s regulatory battles that happened as a part of its journey to purchase Activision Blizzard, we learned that the PS4 outsold the Xbox 2:1. Now, a financial report detailing the number of next-gen consoles out in the wild seems to reveal, with a bit of napkin math, that Microsoft’s latest console ain’t doing any better.
According to a slide from Take-Two Games’ Q3 financial report, about 77 million “Gen 9” consoles have been sold as of December 2023. Gen 9 represents Xbox Series X/S and PS5. Figuring out how much of that 77 million is Xbox and how much is PS5 isn’t too tricky, even if Microsoft refuses to provide sales stats. Instead, we can look at Sony’s stats, which in December 2023 revealed that 50 million PS5s had been sold to consumers. Assuming Sony has sold a million or so more consoles since then, it’s likely that Xbox has only sold about 25 million consoles worldwide. Add it all up and Sony’s PS5 has likely sold twice as well as Xbox Series X/S.
Normally, this data wouldn’t be too exciting and wouldn’t set off too many fire alarms online, but keep in mind that right now a lot of Xbox faithful are waiting to see what the future of the brand will be after reports came out that suggested big exclusives, like Starfield, might make their way to PS5. It’s set off a huge firestorm as people wait to hear from Xbox boss Phil Spencer next week and learn what the future of Xbox looks like.
More data showing how not-so-hot Xbox consoles sell isn’t helping calm these folks down as they worry about the unlikely scenario of Microsoft pulling a Sega, ditching its consoles, and publishing its games on all platforms. Next week can’t come soon enough.
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