As you may already know, Microsoft doesn't report Xbox sales figures. The company stopped keeping us up to date all the way back in 2015, after it became clear that the Xbox One's numbers would not paint a pretty picture when compared to the runaway success of the PlayStation 4. Since then, we've had to rely on third-party data to fill in the blanks while Sony continues to provide PS4 sales statistics.
This time, it's computer technology company AMD that's spilled the beans. During a recent financial briefing, AMD stated that total PS4 and Xbox One sales amount to 150 million units. Just a few weeks ago, Sony announced that the PS4 was sitting at around 109 million units, and so that means the Xbox One is currently trailing by some distance at around 41 million units. In other words, Sony's sold 68 million or so more current-gen consoles than Microsoft.
Interestingly, this is a gap that's widened since we could last compare data like this. In 2018, EA's reports put the Xbox One around 50 million units behind PS4, which, at the time, was approaching 80 million. Under two years later, and Sony has put an additional 18 million units between its console and the Xbox One. These are PS2-levels of market domination.
Of course, Sony will be keen to carry this momentum into the next generation, with the PlayStation 5 still set to launch in late 2020.
[source event.webcasts.com, via twinfinite.net]
Comments 78
complete destruction right there.
one thing to keep in mind is, microsoft was always weak competition for sony, even in the 360 era. the 360 had its sales numbers inflated by at least 50% due to all the recalls that occured. it is not uncommon to find people who purchased a minimum of two and upwards of three, four or even five 360 consoles due to all the hardware failure. otherwise, the 360 likely would have sold about 40-50m units instead of 80m+. this is business as usual for sony in dominating the competition. xbox will forever be locked to north america for success. overseas, in europe and asia, it is a complete joke.
That's impressive!!
I'm not surprised the lead is this big but it's nice to see an actual figure confirming it.
Props to Sony and PlayStation! Well deserved!!
Let the PS5 madness begin!!
@thebakerswife yes, pretty well all x1 exclusives have been ported to pc. the term "exclusivity" is now a thing of the past for xbox. sure, it might have contributed a little to the x1 poor sales, but not by much. there really weren't many good 1st party offerings from microsoft this generation so nothing would have saved it. the real defeat occured even before the consoles launched — which was the result of very poor pr and anti-consumer decisions microsoft made. when the world roasted them for the always online drm and its focus on services and kinnect over games, microsoft did a complete turnaround to save itself but it was too little, too late. sony had already struck momentum with ps4 sales and never turned back. one hit exclusive for sony after another made matters worse for microsoft and its weak software library.
you have to keep in mind that xbox has never performed well outside of north america. something like 90-95% of those 41m sales were generated in north america. otherwise, the x1 would have fared a bit better.
That's insane , this generation has truly been a one system race.
Out of the new "Exclusives" from Xbox this gen I only really liked Quantum Break, besides that having the Mass Effect Trilogy with backwards compatibility there wasn't much else I liked besides Halo MCC.
In saying that I'm still picking up a series x for Halo Infinite.
PS4...what a great decision this gen. Just incredible, no contest who won the last 7 years.
Take this article down. It's a bunch lies. The Xbox one did not sold 41 million copies. It pass 41 million. Last year IDC cbc report it sold 46.9. an insider said the Xbox one sold 55 million copies. This is click bait
I thought xbox sold at least 50M, 41M is quite low. Xbox really needs to be better next-gen, healthy competition is better for all of us I think
@Therealgamer1 AMD sold cpu for sony and microsoft console, they know the best how much the console is sold.
@Therealgamer1 lol... likely it had shipped 47m. shipped and sold are very different things. no sales data prior to this was concrete so it was likely speculation numbers that you heard. either way, another 10 or 20m units sold for xbox wouldn't change anything regardless.
@Porco than the PS4 did not sold 100+ million copies than
Wow that's a huge margin. Let's see how things turn this new generation.
@wiiware 150+ million copies consoles sold. Xbox pass 41 million units
@thebakerswife they recover
Good time to be a PS4 & Switch gamer. Tho I will say, XB1X is still worth having as a supplement, imo, for the BC & the better specs. No regrets.
@Therealgamer1 the only one here to blame is microsoft for being too cowardly to officially release their numbers. as a result, people need to speculate or read between the lines to get an estimation. but sure, i'll give you 10m of sony's ps4 sales out of pity
The goal of a company is growth PS3 ended up above the 360 but really failed after the PS2 had set a amazing sells record. The question now is will PlayStation show growth over PS4's 109+ million units with PS5? I will do my part to help with a purchase day one.
@Porco - I'm on my 7th 360. I had 2 drives fail that chewed up discs, 3 overheat RRoD's and an E74. The last one I bought is still going strong as a modded media/emulation box.
The abject failure of the XBO is what happens when you decide to sit out an entire generation where making high quality exclusives (that aren't called Forza/Gears/Halo) is concerned. They absolutely made up for the horrific launch mistakes but completely shat the bed with their pathetic first party content efforts.
@Therealgamer1 You gonna be ok there bud?
@Porco then* lol But regardless of your tantrum we know actual sales figures of ps4 and until Microsoft actually releases sales numbers again, like they use to do, then we'll only know what's been shipped based off numbers like this. AMD is a really good resource, since they developed the processor for both consoles.
@Porco I remember when my older bro's second or third 360 went kaput, he decided to crack it open to see what's wrong before contacting repair. Turns out that 360's thermal paste dried up, causing the CPU to overheat.
I think I remember him applying more paste and the console worked after that, but not long before another issue happened killing the console for good. A friend of ours went through 6 or 7 before going full PC lol.
I’m not surprised by theses numbers Xbox has been kinda irrelevant this gen because how bad Xbox one has been with not having good exclusives games and having drm early on. if Microsoft doesn’t get their s*** together next gen than next gen will be their last.
@Shigurui wow, that is quite something. i knew the failure rate was widespread and quite high, but seven consoles is insane! i imagine it was easy for you to jump on the playstation boat this generation after such a bad experience.
@Deadlyblack ouch. after such a bad experience, it must have been easy to jump ship and go the pc route. it will be difficult for your friend to trust a console of any kind after that! microsoft has had a pretty rough 15 years in the console space and it is quite remarkable that they have managed to hang on. from what i have heard, the xbox division has been bleeding money for years, but microsoft being such a wealthy company on the whole has allowed it to carry on. had sony endured something similar, it might not be standing right now.
Proving that games are what really matters for game systems. Who would have thought?
Without game pass Microsoft would be even further behind. It’s the only reason I’ve kept my XB1.
Lol. That puts the xbox firmly in 3rd place
Obviously the More's law.
@Porco - I never really jumped to PS, I've always had both MSFT & Sony consoles every generation. That said I held off XBO until they got Rise of the Tomb Raider timed exclusivity. MS have given me some amazing gaming moments over the years, especially on 360. Crappy build quality I can put up with but I'll never forgive them for killing off the PGR franchise and kicking Bizarre Creations to the kerb in favour of Forza. The salt is real over that!
AMD and its shareholders don’t care about sold through and shipped numbers for AMD’s customers. All they care about are AMD’s sales numbers. As a publicly traded company governed by federal SEC laws and regulations, they cannot make false or misleading statements. Likewise, Sony can not do the same for the same reason.
AMD has reported its numbers. Sony has reported its numbers as well. Based on those numbers that are mandated by federal law to be accurate, Microsoft has only sold/shipped 41 million consoles.
#DealWithIt. (Shout our to Adam Orth)
@Therealgamer1 I hope you get through this difficult time.
F
I was always too worried about using microsoft products. I can literally feel the surveillance.
@Shigurui haha fair enough! there were always a handful of games on xbox platforms i was interested in, but never quite enough for me to justify purchasing a console for. sort of how i felt about the wii u. games such as panzer dragoon orta on the original xbox and the forza horizon games come to mind... or cuphead and ori and the blind forest (both of which i was able to play on pc anyways). but yea, it was simply a matter of the playstation games speaking to me more, dating all the way back to the original playstation and the rest is history. i would be open to the idea of subscribing to xbox game streaming service one day if the performance/price was right, but for actual hardware, i have invested far too much money into the playstation ecosystem to ever turn back. thousands of dollars worth of ps3/ps4 games at this point in addition to some of my favourite franchises of all time... so i'm locked in for the long haul.
Seeing the start they had, and the fact MS started selling the few exclusives they had on PC this isn’t surprising.
The only thing I question about the next gen is can we compare who is ‘winning’ if you can play the exclusives elsewhere, and if such expensive machines will be sold at a loss? If that’s so, then getting people to play on PC is actually more cost effective to the manufacturers, and less cost inhibitive to the market.
As amazing as that it (a true accomplishment), it is still a ways from PS2 behemoth sales of over 150 million units. No doubt PS4 will move closer to this, but I don't think it will beat it, PS5 will take hold and the steam will run out before it can get there I reckon.
Still one of the best performances by Sony, and total domination over the market.
@lacerz
Hey that puts into perspective Spencer interview . 'Playstation and Nin are small fish. (And our friends). we are competing with... Stadia 🦸♂️ tadaa'
FATALITY.
Sony wins.
@Neolit
I think most people would like OG xbox1 with tons of exclusives coming up better than xbox1x that's 'great for 3rd party's. Well actually that's what happened.
M$ didn't do themselves any favours with the naming convention.
PS4 became PS4 'slim' - everyone understood that. PS4 Pro - that's the more powerful 4K(ish) PS4. No problem,.
It was up against XBone, XBone S, XBone X, XBone SAD many of which were/are in production at the same time!?
Shipped 41 million? Probably. Sold < 40 million? Likely
That's basically the population of the UK
this just shows how important "exlusive games" are and not to have the most powerful game consol. and by the look of it microsoft have just given up, all they focus on now is pc and game everywhere with the game pass bs.
@Neolit you should open it up and change the ps4pro thermal paste and pads, that will help a lot.
@Neolit Change the Pro's hard drive to an SSD. My Pro wasn't too loud but now it's all but silent. Those ropey stock hard drives seem to generate a lot of heat.
@Porco i had 4 360's by the end of it's life cycle, i also had 3 OG XBOX's and am currently on my 2nd XBOX ONE
Still on my OG PS1 and PS4 though, i had 2 PS2's althoughh it was my fault, i did drop my original one down the stairs and i brought a PS3 slim to replace my 40gb original model PS3 because that thing sounded like a jet engine when you played it, it still works though
never had to replace a Nintendo system due to failure, every one i had to replace (which wasn't many BTW) was due to me breaking it in some way such as leaving my DS in the window on a hot day and it cooked the top screen
@Deadlyblack I dont know why someone would buy 7 consoles that are such terrible quality. I had 3 PS3 consoles. One got a free repair after 2,5 years which broken down i gave it too a friend for free and he fixed it with new thermal paste. 😆
I could have send it back but i just got the slim. I just gave the answer myself if you like your platform so you take a lot of crap. 😆
@thebakerswife I blame XBOX for not advertising for the rest of the world. I live in a country where everyone only interested in PS4 and most of the Xbox features are not available in most countries.
But ... But... MS now has the power of the TeraFlop!! It will tear Sony apart! Poor Sony doesn't have any hardware to defend itself, only insignificant little software pieces like Horizon Zero Down 2 , God of War, Uncharted, Spiderman, TLOU2, Ghost of Tsushima and maybe some other garbage hidden somewhere.
Anyway, it's important for us having a stronger MS over the next gen.
**Chest thump, chest thump** Sony "wins" **chest thump, chest thump**
Okay, now just play what you like and leave everyone alone.
Huge congrats to Sony for pulling off a wonderful success with the PS4. The difference is certainly staggering, but ultimately, it doesn't matter. I am sure Microsoft is still satisfied with the sales of it's consoles, despite not making the same impact as the PS4.
Games will be made.
People will enjoy them.
The internet will continue to wage a fake war over console preference.
@BarefootBowser its good sonys playstation won this gen. but i fear a cocky sony can ruin a lot, and that we dont need. so i hope microsoft dont give up totally.
@Neolit
Sure.
I never understood this 3dr party thingy arguement though. From my perspective it's always been the same thing, and I have many friends who prefer xbox. If you like Halo or Forza 23 horizons go xbox but as far as most other genre there s more choice on playstation. simple.
Really I dont get people going on about 3rd party better looking and that sort of silliness. Its always a personal feeling about liking the system, the controllers etc etc. I wont teach you anything. It's the ever returning console wars discussions haha
3rd party games supposedly playing better? Nah, that's marketting stuff unless you have both consoles and in that case that matters to choose the version you buy.
Wow. That's worse than i thought. Especially considering an X1X is 299.99 and a Pro is still 399.99
Enjoy it while it lasts, fanboys - it'll all change when MS unleash that second GPU!!!1!1!11!!11!!
@Neolit
Yea I mean I'm not trying to be funny but there are so many games on playstation I cant figure out why someone would be interested only in games that are not exclusive or console exclusive or even same for xbox haha.
I dont get it but fair enough it's cool to think 'oh multiplat games play 'better' 🤷♂️...I guess?
@FullbringIchigo yup, nintendo does have a very good track record for hardware. all my nintendo consoles/handhelds work to this day, including my og snes and wii. the worst thing to ever happen to me with a nintendo product was getting a ds lite with a faulty screen (ghosting issue). seems like that was a common issue but i didn't think much of it at the time.
all my playstation consoles are still working today, including my og ps1 (fat), og ps2 (fat), ps3 slim and og ps4 (fat). i guess i have just been lucky since i have heard stories of some ps3's failing, although not at the same magnituide of the 360. which remainds me, it is good practice to remove dust from these old consoles every so often — it will prevent overheating and help to prolong their life
@Porco that's true i give all my systems a good deep clean at least once a month with a normal clean every few days
a good horse hair paint brush is good for cleaning off dust too
@beavis64 Not necessarily. By november 2005 the Ps2 had sold 100 million. That was nearly one full year before the ps4 shipped. When you consider this and that ps2 sales had peaked at 158 million by 2013. It took them 8 years to get 58 million, opposed to the 4 it took them to get 100 million. And that's with an extra years trading. PS4 is in a similar boat with a smaller window till ps5 releases though. It depends on the longevity of PS4 and how long Sony intends to support it, considering their new console is completely backwards compatible. Still a feat for them to reach the same amount, volumetrically speaking.
@Therealgamer1
Just for you, I'll be generous and give Xbox One 60 mil sold. That's still down from the 80-85 mil the 360 sold, still around 20-25 mil less than what Sony's worst-selling home console did and it still got smashed this gen. I game on all the brands, for a stretch last gen was mostly on Xbox. This time around, MS screwed the pooch.
This seems wrong to misinform people the 41 million number was around 3 years ago and right now no one knows for sure what's the number but xbox has turn things around this gen and I wouldn't be surprised to see them at 65 million at least and unlike sony that's still an impressive number considering no people in Asia buy xbox
@Porco
Not true, they put a billion aside to replace all red ring 360's. They can never be counted as a sale and never where.
@Ozzymandias90
Take out Asia and PS4 is still at roughly 100 mil...
@Dominatso not everyone was covered under the warranty period and resulted in multiple purchases (thereby inflating the 360 sales numbers). just read the comments on here if you need proof that people purchased multiple consoles.
@beavis64 Cant argue with that
@Ozzymandias90 Highly unlikely they are even at 65 million, otherwise MS would have boasted about it long ago. You just appear to be damage controlling.
Xbox One? I kind of remember that contraption.
@Porco - Totally get where you're coming from. Even though I had a PS3 I was massively invested in 360 so that's why I stuck with it even with the failure rate. I only really bought the OG XB because it was pretty much the Dreamcast 2 in a lot of ways and my favourite DC games had sequels on it, MSR became PGR and Jet Set was on there as well, then the mighty Ninja Gaiden came along so moving to 360 for the sequel to that and more PGR games was a no brainer for me.
Microsoft are gonna have to do something special next time. Makes me wonder if it's even worth it for them to continue with the Xbox brand and not just focus on pc
@Boldfoxrd let’s not go there just yet. Series X is shaping up to be a feature-packed console and we don’t even know anything concrete about PS5 other than the logo.
@Porco I think this gen, that counts for both x-box and PS4. The OG xbox was the size of a small house and I'm sure a lot of xbox players upgraded mid gen. But the same can be said for PS4. While the OG PS4 was great lookin, still the best of the gen as far as I'm concerned, My day one system died before the slim released so that was my second PS4 and then I upgraded to a pro. So 3 systems from me. My OG day 1 PS3 is still going strong, or was the last time I booted it up and I only ever needed one PS2.
WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.
The original article they have quoted was updated that the numbers came from vgcharts and not actual AMD numbers.
I created an account just to post this not because i am an xbox fanboy, but i literally HATE misinformation. This article should be thrown in the dumpster.
@TheMountain AMD just gave the 150M number on a slide at their investor day. Look at slide 29 https://ir.amd.com/static-files/dd12bed4-a96e-42e7-b2d9-3940183e2473
Xbox problems this gen were more than just the disaster launch. They also had the bright idea that they had no need to be in the game dev business themselves because 3rd parties would make loads of exclusives based on MS helping them shaft the consumer. Ballmer and Mattrick should go down in history as worst management team ever. Its frankly surprising MS has managed to recover as well as it has from all their train wreck ideas.
But Spencer and Nadella are in a different league. I hope MS is strong next gen as consumers win when their is better competition. If MS and Nintendo were Sony levels of strong at the start of this gen we may have been spared some of the terrible AAA practices around loot boxes and Micro-transactions this gen as the Third party devs would have been competing with more high quality First party releases.
@TooBarFoo from https://twinfinite.net/ who this article was sourced from.
"the version of the presentation slides uploaded after the conference mentioned that the data was sourced from vgchartz.com. This mention was not included in the version of the presentation slides projected during the conference that we watched live.
It’s a fairly weird choice, considering that AMD should have enough data about the hardware components they shop to Sony and Microsoft to make its own estimates, so either they consider the data accurate, or they did not want to share their own data. Either way, this new detail certainly casts a shadow on the reliability of the 150+ million figure."
PS4 obviously kicked Xbox's butt, but most likely not by as much as claimed. Again this article should be corrected as the sourced article was, but I feel it's already done its damage as 100's have probably already read this article and passed it on. I wish Xbox would just release numbers, so these silly arguments can end.
@TheMountain Ok, very strange sourcing. I can only imagine AMD may have NDA's around their own numbers so can only reference third parties. But you are correct, in this case these are not helpful numbers to have out there contained within AMD branded decks.
Look, I know we're all PlayStation fans here, but I genuinely hope the studio acquisitions and such MS have made will lead to more and better XB exclusives, as I feel that's been a massive factor in PS4 domination this gen.
But we all know that when Sony gets complacent, us fans can suffer. Stiffer competition next gen will not only keep Sony on their toes but also give the poor XB fans a console to be proud of. Everybody wins then.
I think maybe part of the reason gamers chose ps4 over xbox was the toxic competitiveness and language spewing forth from xbox before the days of Phil Spencer. The xbox Community back then seemed very fps-centric and drew in like-minded gamers. We shoot and kill hoorah! The xbox fanboy mentality in early days spent quite a bit of time on ps4 forums trying to bring it down. From a gamer's standpoint (especially families and decent gamers) they wanted no part of a console who's community was constantly toxic. In the end the ps4 gamers just played a whole variety of games, kept on enjoying exclusives and enjoyed broadcasting games such as fortnite and rocket league. Gamers on ps4 supported one another on the channels and that love and respect for one another just grew. After a crappie day at work, the last thing I wanted was toxic xbox crusaders bleeting expletives at me! My gaming time. I expect peace, fun and enjoyment. So if xbox next gen want to do well... Sort out the toxics gamers!
Hmm i actually think 40 + million is quite good considering just how bad the initial reveal of the X1 actually was.
Personally i've used/enjoyed my X1 just as much as my PS4 this generation, despite many people trying to make out it has no exclusives worth playing, i've really enjoyed games like Recore, Super Lucky's Tale, Halo:Spartan Assault, Rare Replay, Crimson Dragon, Cuphead, Quantum Break, Ori, Sunset Overdrive and Voodoo Vince Remastered as much as most PS4 exclusives, Halo 5 was a huge disappointment but apart from that, between these games and BC i can't say my X1 has been used any less than my PS4, so i feel like it has been good value for money personally.
It's because Sony has all sorts of exclusive titles and most of the best games MS has on Xbox can also be played on PC, PS4 and Switch. MS has only a small handful of titles that are only on Xbox.
Software sells hardware - not the other way around.
@Porco
yeah but that only took 2 months. and the 360 was out for a while already before the first problems arose. Logical if you look at the cause. MS did not have time to inflate within that time. If MS was able to inflate those numbers that much that would have won that gen.
@SaikoWaifu2003 Yeah it does seem like they've picked an identity and really stuck to it. Sony isn't a small company it's not like they couldn't branch out more.
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