Released nearly a year ago, the Xbox One and PS4 are still in direct competition. But judging by the current sales of each console, the PS4 is preferred by a wide margin.
Xbox One sales were estimated to be in the five million range back in April. It’s a bit difficult to determine just how many Xbox One consoles Microsoft sold, because the company lumps both Xbox One and Xbox 360 sales into the same figure. From April to September, 3.5 million Xbox units were shipped. If these numbers are added together, a total of 8.5 million units were sold from release until September. But this doesn’t factor in 360 sales. It’s highly unlikely that Microsoft didn’t sell any, so we can adjust the numbers to account for 360 sales by comparing previous sales, and by subtracting units that are still on shelves and haven’t been bought by customers. An upper limit of 7.42 million consoles sold has been determined.
PlayStation announced back in April that PS4 sales were over seven million units to date. In August, the company announced over 10 million sales to date, meaning an increase of three million units within four months, or an average of about 23,000 units per day in that short period. Even assuming PS4 sales were not so great during this period, and assuming that sales were half that of the aforementioned profitable period, PS4 sales are up to at least 10.56 million units to date – and that’s just the lower limit of estimated sales.
With an upper limit of 7.75 million Xbox One units sold to date, Microsoft is barely keeping up with PlayStation’s sales of over ten million PS4 consoles. The past week’s sale numbers, according to VGChartz, indicate much the same conclusion. Approximately 290,000 PS4 units sold, with only about 130,000 Xbox One units selling, which is less than half of the PS4’s sales.
The fact that Microsoft has been comparatively silent about worldwide sales makes it apparent that the Xbox One is not doing as well as desired, particularly in Japan. Despite the fact that the Xbox One is comparably far behind in terms of sales, it still has a fighting chance, particularly with some titles exclusively released on the console, such as Sunset Overdrive and the latest Halo collection. With nearly 40% of major console sales due to Xbox One, it’s unlikely that the Xbox will disappear from store shelves in the near future. The decreased price for the holidays will likely increase sales of the Xbox One and Microsoft is planning on expanding their market in China. While the future of the Xbox is not necessarily bright, improvements are in the works and the busiest shopping season is ahead.
