Microsoft has finally revealed a huge sales gap between the Xbox One and PS4 consoles.
While you might have assumed that the PS4 outperformed the Xbox One, Microsoft has always remained silent about the console’s sales figures. Now the company has finally exposed this discrepancy – and it’s not pretty.
Microsoft admits that the PS4 outperformed the Xbox One by virtually two to one. The data comes from documentary evidence (opens in a new tab) that the tech giant has submitted to the Brazilian national competition regulator, and the key conclusion here is:
“Sony overtook Microsoft in console sales and installed base, selling more than twice the last-gen Xbox,” says Microsoft, according to Gloss gametranslation.
Microsoft still hasn’t disclosed exactly how many Xbox One consoles sold. However, Sony’s latest reported figure for PS4 sales is around 117.2 million. If Microsoft has sold half that number, we are dealing with approximately 58.6 million Xbox One consoles or even less.
An unshakable reputation
There are several reasons for the relatively poor sales of the Xbox One. First, you may remember the disastrous marketing of the console in the run-up to its launch: initially, the console was set to require an online connection all the time, and any physical games installed on your Xbox One would be tied to your console and the console itself.
This was a scheme that would effectively render the disks useless after the initial installation. Attempts were made to eliminate the aftermarket for Xbox One games, but Xbox fans were appalled by the move. It was a shocking mistake by Microsoft, and Sony was happy to make fun of it. Remember the infamous tutorial on sharing your PS4 games?
Moments like this and Microsoft’s initial pressure to push the Kinect camera initially hamper the mass appeal of the Xbox One. Fortunately, the first patch removed the requirement for the console to be permanently available, but the damage has already been done.
It might have stumbled heavily over the blocks then, but Microsoft has finally turned the Xbox One into a console worth buying. Many of the best Xbox One games still have impressive average ratings on Metacritic. And the introduction of the Xbox Game Pass subscription service gave the console a unique selling point compared to the competition.
Just like the Wii U crash announced the development of the Nintendo Switch, the Xbox One laid the foundations for the Xbox Series X | S consoles. The powers of the current generation of Microsoft are much more consumer-friendly. They still offer Game Pass as a key service and come with amazing quality of life features like smart delivery and great fast resume.