PlayStation Beats Nintendo and Xbox By Some Distance in UK, US Brand Recognition Surveys

This seems like a bit of a bizarre list. Where's Disney? Nike? Surely Marvel is quite high at the moment? Surely higher than Android!

@get2sammyb I have a similar experience. Not quite 80's America NES levels of recognition/equation of gaming, but certainly along those lines.

how is this index even formulated? sounds like nothing but arbitrary data with ulterior motives. why nintendo isn't even on the list for north america is mind boggling.

@LaNooch1978 @Porco Fairly standard market research practices for most polling data. Sample of just shy of 50,000 people and extrapolate from that.

"And, of course, with the PS4 still dominating the global console market even though it's closing in on being five years old, the data certainly lines up."
but we all know that somehow all the hardcore gamers are on xbox

jk by the way.

to be on topic:it is nice to see playstation doing so well.
must be a very hard time for xbox when they are not even recognised as much as playstation in their home country.

Curios to see how the survey's were conducted. I'm not doubting the conclusions, we pretty much all know this is how things are, but I'm still wondering. Are they shown logo's and asked to name the company? Are they shown the name and ask if they know what it is? Are they asked to name companies off of the top of their head? I know McDonalds is always my top answer, b/c that's just how I view McDonalds, a survey answer, pretty much regardless of the question.

And the reason I ask this, as pertains to Ntineod, I still believe probably half the 100 million people who owned a Wii - aunts, uncles, grandparents, old age homes - dont' even know it's by Ntineod, they just think it's a Wii or Wii Sports. Or I wouldn't' even doubt a "Sony Playstation".

Also - for the sake of argument:

Sony = Nintnedo
Playstation = 3DS or Switch

You can't compare PlayStation and Nitneod, that's not how it works. And Sony is probably just as well known as the "electronics company" or movies as video game company.

@adf86 some people think that because xbox was king last gen and PS this gen,xbox will rule next gen again aswell. they see some sort of pattern.

also while i don't believe that xbox will for sure be king next gen they are investing (buying) in blockbuster exclusives although it remains to be seen if those exclusives will be as big and impactfull as our exclusives. plus they have to share them with pc making those exclusives already less impactfull for xbox.

this is pretty funny really because back in the day all you used to hear was nintendo and maybe sega untill the playstation came along

I guess Xbox's hardcore fanbase just wasn't enough.

@Areus
NES was such a leap from the Atari, it became the must have console when I was a kid. I owned the NES, then upgraded to the SNES and Genesis for college. When the Saturn and PlayStation launched, I rented both from Blockbuster...and became a PlayStation fan.

@get2sammyb
Microsoft jump started last gen by ditching the original Xbox and releasing the 360 a full year ahead of the PS3 (RRoD being a key result of rushing to market). Sony didn't help matters by screwing the PS3's launch. This generation's launches were a bit of a role reversal, and with both the PS4 and XBO releasing a matter of weeks from each other, Sony was able to capitalize. I don't anticipate either allowing the other a full year head start ever again.

@jdv95
It all depends on what services are promoted and at what cost. Microsoft shot themselves in both feet at the start of this generation. Kinect required. Always online (even though...aren't we already, really?). No game sharing outside of the family pass. $499 USD. If they had released without the Kinect, lowering their MSRP to $399 AND offered BC at launch, they'd probably be leading this generation. Especially since their launch line-up was much better than PlayStation's. Of course, typical Sony, they have a much better track record for supporting their console for the entire generation, which we've been lucky enough to experience the last few years.

@rjejr You can absolutely compare PlayStation and Nintendo — how else are you supposed to do it? Nintendo names almost every console Nintendo Something. Nintendo 64. Nintendo GameCube. Nintendo Wii. Nintendo Switch.

On a fundamental level that's no different to PlayStation 2. PlayStation 3. PlayStation 4.

@get2sammyb yep. My mom used to call them Nintendo all the time - I gave up trying to correct her.

Bit surprised Playstation beat Xbox in America as well.

@get2sammyb before PlayStation was a twinkle in Ken Kutaragi's eye, when Nintendo and Sega ruled the roost, all game consoles were referred to as 'Nintendo' by non-gamers in my country. Or 'Nintenduh' if you wanna get the dialect correct.
Example: 'Where Shaquille is? He in de front house playing Nintenduh.' And said 'Nintenduh' was clearly an old Atari 2600.

Glad to see PlayStation has reached the same status in your homeland.

@ShogunRok Well you can, but it's inherently wrong. Might as well ask, what's more popular, McDonald's or the Whopper? Or Burger King or a Big Mac. It's just wrong. People probably do it all the time, but it's wrong.

Why does Playstation beat out Nintendo? You answered it yourself.
PS - 10s of millions (I forgot)
PS2 - 160 million
PS3 - 80 million
PS4 - 80 million

Over 20+ plus continous years Playstation has been advertised non-stop, close to 400 million sold.

Nintendo had the NES then SNES. If they were up to SNES 5 or
NES 6 then you'd have a fair comparison. And likely a closer one.

Or imagine if instead of DS and 3DS there was

Gameboy
Gameboy Color
Gameboy Advance
Gameboy Micro
Gameboy DS
Gameboy DS Lite
Gameboy DSi
Gameboy 3DS
New Gameboy 3DS

Then we could compare Playstation and Gameboy, and while Playstation may still win in the UK, the rest of the world may pick Gameboy.

Comparing Playstation and Nintendo names or logos makes no sense.

@rjejr not criticizing your grammar skills in the least, but your misspellings of Nintendo are hilarious when I try to say them out loud.
You must have the fleetest-footed fingers in the West.

I'm surprised Nintendo didn't rank in the US as they are bigger fans of Nintendo than we are in Europe.

Not at all surprised Playstation is so highly ranked here. Sony do a great job worldwide, whereas Nintendo's EU relationship has always been lacking (though has improved in the last 15 years).

PlayStation is the best.i would put nike and mc donals.Samsung tv also.anyways.been down with PlayStation since since day 1 in 1995.sony PlayStation is the g.o.a.t..like bret the hitman hart.the best theyre is the best theyre was.the best theyre ever will be.wwf the best word up son

@rjejr
Ummmm...500 million, as of last month.

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2018/08/playstation_celebrates_500_million_console_sales_with_limited_edition_ps4_pro

Xbox is the most embarrassingly generic name for a games console. No wonder people prefer to say PlayStation... The Wii was making inroads until they messed it up with the Wii U 😂 Honestly, Microsoft and Nitendi have made it easy for Sony in this respect.

This probably just means my relatives would mistake every system in existence for a PlayStation.

Not surprised at all, PlayStation has always been the best console to own and that's a fact especially with the PS2, I also think that not changing the name helps with recognition brand unlike their competitors that change the name of their consoles and sometimes with stupid ones like Xbox One X😂

These statistics should be taken with a huge pinch of salt. Just looking at the UK survey, I find it hard to believe that Playstation is more recognisable than Google, Amazon or the NHS. And how is Fitbit the 6th most recognisable brand?

According to prophet's definition of brand relevance it means this: These brand favorites earn and re-earn loyalty by doing something others don’t: They continuously find new ways to connect, engage and inspire their customers.
From this maybe it's similar to brand loyalty where us consumers splash with our cash cos we trust, enjoy, feel part of a connected community and love the products and services - in other words PlayStation is the preferrred choice to play games! Haha just guessing! To me this means the PlayStation community is one huge happy gaming bunch. For the gamers right Can't say I feel the same passion for fitbit, android, a macdonalds meal, etc and Marvel only appears maybe twice (possibly a year) on a regular basis.

@lacerz Thanks. I think I was on vacation that week and missed that article.

Doesn't really help with my PS One number though as the only way they reach 500 mil is including PSP and Vita which I really wasn't considering b/c I dont' think anybody in their right mind calls them PlayStation Portable and Playstation Vita. Well maybe the PSP, but Vita was Vita. Maybe PS Vita. I wonder if they included the PS TV and PS Vita Tv. Maybe the 2 million PSVR sold as well.

Probably could have looked it up in the time I typed this.

@ShogunRok Come on guys this is lazy, you've got this all wrong, this index does not measure the 'most-recognised brand' in any way. The rank is decided by asking roughly 11-12'000 people in their region, be it UK/US etc and surveying 'where [the selected brand] falls across the four principles of relevance – customer obsession, pragmatism, innovation and inspiration.' Furthermore brands were selected based on the respective regional 2017 data that 'achieved outsized business performance (MRY revenues and trailing 3-yr revenue growth)', ergo not all brands are included.

@Kidfried Yes, you can compare brand names, but that doesn't make it meaningful in any way. You can ask people if they'd rather have a Coke or Herpes and Coke would probably win, does that make Coke the best soda brand? Does it prove more people drink Coke than have Herpes? It's a meaningless question, but sure, go ahead and ask it, you'll get answers.

I think Bose is pretty popular, but nowhere near BMW. I mean sure, there are probably a lot of people in the US who aren't sure what BMW stands for, but everybody knows what a Beemer is. Probably the logo too, we've all been cut off by enough of them. I'm not sure I know what the Bose logo is besides the word "Bose".

Ikea is well known among the hipsters, but disliked among people who dislike hipsters, so that's a tricky one.

@Turismo4GT You may be the first person in 10 years to point out my Nintnedo mistypyings on PS. I get 1 a week on Nintneod Life, though I do post there about 10x as much as here.

I'd suggest not trying to pronounce them, or read them, just gloss over them bemusingly. My brand on NL is mistyping Nitnedo, I can't stop now. (Not that I could even if I wanted to.)

@rjejr sony is a tech giant bigger than Nintendo
Sony has there hands in all the pies so to speak.
Phones
Tvs
Cameras
Gaming consoles
Movie studios
Gaming studios
Headphones
Smartwatches
Stereos
Speakers
Etc Etc
Sony also developes or helps others with new tech
PlayStation is Sonys gaming brand (the only thing keeping Sony alive people say)
Nintendo is only a gaming brand. (as far I'm aware)
So you can't compare Sony with Nintendo
But you can playstation with Nintendo

@toffeecrit Doesn't change the facts presented by the index or the article though, does it? Wouldn't say it was lazy.

Plus, the article does say "This kind of stuff is always interesting, because while we doubt anyone would argue that it's concrete proof of a brand's overall success, it's a great way of determining trends." And that's totally the case.

@shogunrok @get2sammyB Do you not use google much in the UK? Awesome results, but I’m really surprised that PS beat google.

PlayStation Nation is always getting bigger, we are like a traditional football club with the craziest supporters.

This is why it's usually odd to interact with Americans online. In real life, no one I know has a Switch, wants or a Switch, or in most cases had even heard of it before I mentioned it. The last thing they knew Nintendo did was the original Wii. Yet online people talk about the Switch as if it's this powerhouse and won't just be totally wiped off the map when the next gen actually starts. They also often think the XB1 is selling as well, even better than the PS4. It's quite strange.

@Jaz007 It's the only search engine anyone uses. Like America, people say "google it" when they just mean "search the internet for it".

@Jaz007 Yeah i think the majority of people here in the uk only know Google as that thing you search things for on the internet, and i bet most people that own an android phone are not even aware that Google own the OS they are using. The market share for mobile phones in the uk is roughly 55% IOS and 45% Android.

It is a bit surprising as almost everyone I know uses phrases like 'I'll Google it' these days.

@adf86 I don’t think this dismisses the “Xbox is making a comeback” talk. I think PS4 outselling the XBox dismisses that. Hehe

What I would say though is that this is brand recognition only. Most people will know PS4 and PlayStation because of their sponsorships and advertising, not because they play the consoles.

Brand awareness can be anything. Like seeing the logo at a football game for example. They don’t even need to know what the company does.

@Matroska I see your point a little, but do you really think is wise to just assume that the Switch will just fall flat on its face the minute PS5 and Xbox Scarlett comes out? It usually takes SUCCESSFUL consoles five or six years before they start slowing down in sales. And before you bring up the Wii U, remember that the system did terrible, EVEN through first year standards. Not to mention Nintendo's messaging of what the Wii U was wasn't clear at all. There were people that LITERALLY thought the system was an accessory or a peripheral to the Wii. Not to mention there were hardly anything and I mean ANYTHING for the Wii U for months whereas they have been releasing a game almost every month(not to mention the massive library and success of the indie games) Sure they don't have all the major third party AAA multiplatforms because of the lack of power of the Switch, but having those remasters, ports, first-party exlcusives on an monthly basis really helps it.
P.S: I also argue that the third-party support is stronger than it ever was, even more so than the Wii era.

Here in Indonesia most people associate gaming with playstation, I don't know anyone with either switch or xbox1, the only xbox people know is xbox 360. And it's not depending on age too, my 12 years old nephew and my 30+ years old friends all choose ps4.

That's why I don't get it when people says xbox will be back next-gen, playstation is ending this gen stronger than ever, with a couple of franchise that has probability to sold 10M+ (uncharted 4, horizon zd, gow, spider-man, tlou 2), the only way for sony to lost that advantage is if next-gen sony console is like ps3, a hard to develop for, $600 machine.

@Porco Mind boggling or enlightening? Based on the internet you would think Nintendo would beat Xbox in brand recognition but media coverage and yelling fanboys dont directly translate to brand recognition it seems. Maybe we give Nintendo too much credit. 🤷🏾‍♂️

@3Above i don't think that is the case. maybe you are giving this shallow study too much credit. nintendo is synonymous with gaming worldwide and is known by people who don't even game. old people still refer to all videogames as "nintendo" for god sakes lol

@Porco The results speak for themselves. If we disregard "shallow surveys" like this then I guess all market research must be made up too. Old people who do t game know Playstation too. I'm not saying NO ONE knows the Nintendo brand but clearly they dont know it as well as many believe otherwise the result would reflect that.

@adf86 People think that the masses will leave playstation next-gen because it can't cross-play with others console is the weirdest thing that I ever heard , most people that play games doesn't care about politics in games company, they only care about price and games (1st and 3rd party), as long as the next playstation has all the big AAA 3rd party plus 1st party games and has good price, it will sells.

@Porco Nintendo definitely doesn't synonymous with gaming worldwide, I don't think I ever heard people (old or young) say nintendo names when talking about gaming in here, that days is loong gone. Its all about "playing ps" now (playstation).

@Slasher It's more that the Switch is ALREADY being outsold by PS4 weekly around the world apart from Japan. When the PS5 comes out, it's screwed. Not only because it won't be the hot new thing anymore, not just because the dedicated fans have already bought it so it'll just be down to casual gamers picking one up, but also because the typical game release will be THAT much further ahead of what the Switch will be capable of running.

This is the time for the Switch to be outselling the PS4 because the PS4 is in its twilight years and, quite simply, you'd think most people that want one already have one. And they still have third-party problems, the only consoles where they didn't were the NES and SNES. The fact is that Nintendo are still in a position where the majority of new games aren't on their console even though they dashed a generation ahead due to poor sales of Wii U.

@Porco Not in the UK. The average person thinks of Nintendo in the same way they think of Atari or the Commodore 64. It's a toy from their childhood. Also bear in mind that IIRC the Mega Drive sold better than the SNES here, so for more people it's more about remembering Sonic than Mario. But the real breakthrough console that practically everyone played and has happy childhood memories from was the PS1 here.

You have to bear in mind, about half of the worldwide sales of each Nintendo console were just in the USA. That means that you have to combine hundreds of other countries together to reach the same sales of, say, SNES or N64 as just America had. Like, I've been a gamer my whole life and I only knew one other person that had an N64, two that had a GC, more people had Wiis but they were people's sisters, moms, etc, and just had WiiFit. Then I've never even seen a Wii U or Switch IRL, nor heard of anyone with one. By contrast, back in the day, even my totally non-gaming brother had a PS1, and most people I know have a PS4.

@Kidfried "That being said, comparing Nintendo to PlayStation is meaningful. Maybe not for you, but people in marketing will definitely care."

Anybody in marketing comparing those 2 by name should be fired. Now obviously if it's just an off hand remark, like saying Wii rather than Wii U, well that's simply a slip of the tongue, no harm done. But if you are doing actual meaningful research comparing video game companies, and you are comparing "Nintendo" and "PlayStation" directly, you should be fired.

Now if the list goes like this:
Xbox
Microsoft
Playstation
Sony
Wii
Nintneod

and you want people to rank them, well that's ok, everything is in there, but you can't just ask

Sony
Xbox
Wii

or

Playstation
Microsoft
Nintendo

I'd fail any student who came up with that.

@Matroska fair enough. but i am referring to the u.s. portion of the report where it states that nintendo didn't even make the listing... i find that impossible to believe. how could nintendo place 11th in the uk but not even make the listing in the u.s.? this survey has zero credibility in my books.

@Montys "So you can't compare Sony with Nintendo
But you can playstation with Nintendo"

But you should compare Sony and Nitnedo for brand recognition, they are both companies, and Japanese companies at that. You should compare Playstation and Wii or Wii U or Switch b/c they are both game consoles.

Comparing a company - Nintendo - to a toy - Playstation - just doesn't make any sense.

@Matroska You really think the casual audience won't eventually catch on to the Switch? This is not the Wii U era where even their first-party output was few and between Also, it seems that your only speaking from the UK's standpoint when you talk about the popularity of a system. You probably haven't been noticing that the Switch has broken records of sales ever since it was released on the market( well except for the UK, but performace and sales have significantly improved over the years https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-02-07-why-isnt-nintendo-switch-breaking-records-in-the-uk(forgive me if I can't hyperlink the website for you; I don't know how). Grant you, I do agree that they STIlL insist on making underpowered hardware is really frustration and baffling(this is mostly due to Nintendo of Japan's stubbornness), but you have to remember that most of the gaming community treat the Switch as a secondary console rather than a primary console of choice and there's nothing wrong with that. Nintendo always had catered to a different audience compared to Sony and Microsoft so if most of the PS4 and/or Xbox one gamers can have a Switch alongside their system, they will most likely still have their Switch when they move on to a PS5 and/or Xbox Scarlett.
P.S: Plus unlike their handhelds, Nintendo's consoles never had a mainline rpg Pokémon game, so a juggernaut like Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu/ Let's Go Eevee will sell lots of systems( before you mention the controversy, let's be real for a second. This is a mainline Pokémon rpg( albeit casual and not core, but still),so the same thousands of people complaining are the same ones that's gonna buy the game anyways).

Edit: Never mind, it seems that it hyperlinks automatically, lol.

@rjejr but we are not comparing companies we are comparing brands
PlayStation is more than just a toy lol it's Sonys gaming company.
PlayStation = Nintendo

@NintendoFan4Lyf
I’d only recognise Nathan Drake from behind.

I overheard someone asking a member of staff if they stocked 'those playstation amiibos' so this is hardly surprising

@ShogunRok 100% agree with your quoted comment, but this index does not measure the 'most-recognised brand' in any way. It measures the brand against consumer experience based on the four, already mentioned, principles. So regardless on how they conducted the survey, be it actual users of the selected brand, or perhaps just impressions, PS ranked third in the UK by being highly relevant to the 'customer' or as the index methodology states 'which brands are the most indispensable to their lives – the ones they simply cannot imagine living without.'
I used the word lazy as for all intents and purposes it appears as though the primary source has not been consulted and this article is based purely on a second hand source, which also mistakenly states that 'PlayStation is the third most-recognized brand in the UK'.

@get2sammyb wow, is the default reply to treat the person as a dullard? You 'do realise' I never said anything derogatory about the number of people surveyed, it was merely to contextualise what the index actually entailed, as a microcosm of US/UK/Chinese/German consumer sentiment it is a relatively fair number if somewhat unbalanced based on population.

_{Let’s not try and start trouble, ok? -Tasuki-}

@toffeecrit The internet needs more people like you. Seriously, excellent posts.

@naruball Thank you, it's just a shame that the powers that be at Push Square don't seem to value journalistic integrity as much as they should do!