Although both remain very profitable in the US, the PS5 is easily outperforming the Xbox Series X/S according to sales data.
While both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S sold well when they launched in 2020, they were hampered by frequent stock shortages brought on by the coronavirus pandemic and scalpers.
Both consoles are thankfully much easier to acquire nowadays. At the beginning of the year, Sony even proudly declared that PlayStation 5 shortages were over, as it crossed the 30 million sales mark.
New sales data from the US shows that this has only benefitted Sony, as the PlayStation 5 is now outselling its predecessors, compared to the same point in their lifetime… while the Xbox Series X/S is still falling behind its.
The PlayStation 5 has inched ahead of the PlayStation 4 by 5% and is effortlessly stomping the PlayStation 3 by 87%.
The Xbox Series X/S, however, continues to trail behind the Xbox One by 10% (although it is beating the Xbox 360 by 6%). As such, GamesIndustry.biz expects the PlayStation 5 to remain the hardware market sales leader in the US until at least 2025.
The PlayStation 5 has recently enjoyed a temporary price cut (for the standard edition anyway) that boosted sales, but this also points to Sony launching the rumoured slim model later in the year. How that’ll impact regular PlayStation 5 sales remains to be seen.
Xbox, by comparison, has no such plans to release a mid-gen refresh of its console, although there’ll certainly be a successor later down the line.
As for how the Nintendo Switch is faring, it’s been busy breaking records thanks to the launch of The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom. In fact, as of July, it has finally surpassed the Wii in terms of US lifetime sales.
It now only trails behind the Xbox 360, by less than one million units, and the PlayStation 2 by less than five million units.
Of course, the Switch already became the third best-selling console in the world back in February, only losing out to the PS2 and the original Nintendo DS.
It’ll be interesting to see whether or not the Switch keeps up this momentum into 2024, considering it’s widely rumoured that Nintendo will launch its next console (nicknamed the Switch 2 by fans) sometime next year.
This new data also corroborates previous reports that subscription numbers for services like PlayStation Plus and Xbox Game Pass have plateaued.
After enjoying strong growth throughout 2020 and 2021, total spending on video game subscription services in the US has settled around $400 million (about £317 million) a month – a number it first achieved in November 2021.
There have been declines in mobile spending and add-ons too, but they’ve been offset by the launches of premium blockbuster games.
Examples include the aforementioned Tears Of The Kingdom, the Resident Evil 4 remake, and Hogwarts Legacy, the last of which has already made more than $1 billion.
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MORE : PS5 console price cut to £399 in the UK… again
MORE : Xbox gaming sales are up… by 1% as console sales continue to fall
MORE : Nintendo Switch sells 1 billion video games as Tears Of The Kingdom passes 18 million
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