Is PS5 outselling Xbox?

For the first year or so of the new generation, the PlayStation 5 was outselling the Xbox Series X/S by a factor of 2:1 worldwide, but for most of this year Sony's console has suffered severe stock issues, while the Xbox Series X has all but solved its.

metro.co.uk - Xbox Series X has outsold PS5 for three quarters in a row in the US

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Xbox Series X/S is now relatively easy to buy (pic: Microsoft)

Despite a decline in sales, Xbox has just posted its second best fourth quarter ever, as Xbox Cloud Gaming also proves a hit. For the first year or so of the new generation, the PlayStation 5 was outselling the Xbox Series X/S by a factor of 2:1 worldwide, but for most of this year Sony’s console has suffered severe stock issues, while the Xbox Series X has all but solved its. It is pointless comparing sales of the two consoles until both are easily available, but it’s impossible anyway, since Microsoft refuses to release sales figures. That’s because of how badly the Xbox One sold, but it may change its mind soon as according to its latest financial results it’s been outselling the PlayStation 5 for the last three quarters in a row in North America. The obvious qualification there is that the Xbox always does much better in America than anywhere else in the world, with the UK being its only other major market. That said, the Xbox Series X/S has been doing much better than its predecessor everywhere, even including Japan. According to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, the company has ‘sold more consoles life to date than any previous generation of Xbox and have been the market leader in North America for three quarters in a row among next gen consoles.’ That doesn’t mean Xbox has outsold PlayStation 5 every single month but overall, it’s been the market leader this year. Also successful is Xbox Cloud Gaming, which now works on Samsung smart TVs and has seen over four million people streaming Fortnite through it – one million of which were new customers. Microsoft’s fourth quarter earnings were down by 7% on last year, but this had been expected due to ‘lower engagement hours and monetisation in third party and first party content’. Which translated into English means there weren’t any new games out. As a result, hardware sales fell by 11% and content and services (i.e. subscriptions and first party game sales) fell 6%. This was still Xbox’s second best fourth quarter ever though, so given the circumstances there’s little reason for Microsoft to be upset, especially as it’s led to the highest fiscal year sales ever for Xbox. Unofficial estimates of Xbox Series X/S have it at around 16 million worldwide, compared to roughly 21 million for the PlayStation 5. That’s a much closer gap than earlier in the generation but the big question now is what will happen when the PlayStation 5 is also easy to get a hold of. The other major issue is the lack of first party games from both companies. Apart from God Of War Ragnarök, Sony has nothing else imminent at the moment and while Microsoft has announced plenty of games it’s only Starfield that’s due out any time soon – and even that’s not till 2023.

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MORE : Every Xbox Series X game coming in 2022 and beyond: from Starfield to Perfect Dark MORE : Xbox Games with Gold ending Xbox 360 support because it’s run out of games

MORE : Xbox says console supply chain will ‘remain rocky’ for 2022

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Is PlayStation declining in Japan?

vgchartz.com - PlayStation is in 'Decisive Decline' in Japan Following Lackluster PS5 ...

PlayStation is in 'Decisive Decline' in Japan Following Lackluster PS5 Launch, According to Analyst - News

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by, posted on 02 August 2021

The PlayStation brand has seen a decline in popularity in Japan over the years with the PlayStation 4 not matching the sales of the PlayStation 3 in the country. The PlayStation 5 launched in Japan on day one, however, it has only sold about 242,000 units as of December 20. This is the worst ever for the launch of a PlayStation system, other than the PSP. ACE Economic Research Institute analyst Hideki Yasuda speaking with GamesIndustry says that the PlayStation brand is in "decisive decline" in Japan and that Sony is not putting enough effort into selling the PlayStation in Japan. "Early PS5 trends have shown that the PlayStation brand in Japan is in decisive decline and Ace Economic Research Institute cannot help but be disappointed," Yasuda said. "Looking at the present situation, in which Sony (SIE) has failed to ship enough PS5s to Japan for the year-end shopping season, we cannot help but be deeply concerned for the future of the PlayStation market in Japan." A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.