Game On: PlayStation 5 sales booming, Xbox sales slacking
Earlier this week, research firm VGChartz published worldwide sales charts comparing units sold for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch over comparable periods – January to February of a given year. No doubt aided by the pandemic, in early 2021 the Switch saw around 3.1 million sales, followed by the PS5 with 1.5 million and the new Xbox machines at around 650k.
Early 2022 was a shakeup, with Switch maintaining a firm lead at 2.7 million while the PS5 and Xbox both sold around 1.1 million units. Exact figures suggest Microsoft actually bested Sony by around 43,000.
This year, things are not looking good for Microsoft. While the PS5 has sold a whopping 3 million units and the Switch a respectable 2 million, the Xbox Series X|S sold just under 1 million systems through January-February. While that’s not much worse than its previous year, the third year of a new system’s existence is typically a lot more healthy and hypeworthy.
Video game console sales have been in a state of flux due to the computer chip shortage caused by the pandemic. This has kept the newer, more costly chips in the PS5 and Xbox Series X in especially low supply.
As the chip shortage has begun to subside, it’s rather telling that PS5 sales have risen dramatically while Xbox Series X|S sales have stagnated. It’s anecdotal evidence, but in 2021-22 I recall seeing a substantial number of gamers online claiming they settled for a new Xbox because they simply couldn’t find a PS5 that wasn’t price-gouged by some scalper.
Suffice to say, Xbox sales are not looking good this year. As someone who jumped ship from Sega to Microsoft in 2001 – the Dreamcast ceased production mere months before the Xbox debuted – I can’t help but get flashbacks to Sega’s untimely exit from the hardware market. Sony has long been a force to be reckoned with.
But much has changed in two decades. Hardware sales no longer dictate a video game company’s overall livelihood. With few exceptions, game consoles have been sold at a loss to their respective companies for the past three generations. Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo make their money back – and then some – by selling games and peripherals.
In 2020, CEO of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer likened the gaming landscape to TV streaming services. “You and I might watch Netflix. I don’t know where you watch it, where I watch it, but we can have conversations about the shows we watch,” he said. “I want gaming to evolve to that same level.” He also described “the hardware you got keeping us from being able to play together” and game exclusivity contracts as “walled gardens – such a 1990s construct.”
Spencer predicts that ultimately, all Xbox needs to do is “have a UI that works on a television, an input mechanism that works on a television.” When the day comes that Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo consoles are replaced with a digital streaming service or subscription of some kind, I would bet good money that Xbox will be the first brand to do so.
Microsoft has already been making moves in that direction. Despite heavy competition from Steam, for the past few years Windows computers have come with an Xbox application pre-installed. Their Game Pass service – which offers complete access to all first-party Microsoft games and a swath of third-party titles for a monthly fee – is available on both Xbox and PC. The “Ultimate” tier grants subscribers seamless access on both platforms.
With the Xbox waning in popularity, PC gaming on the rise and Microsoft being a computer company first and foremost, this seems like a prudent direction for their gaming division. Nintendo has long been a dominant force in the handheld and kid-centric video game corner, and Sony has fought hard for PlayStation to be seen as the console for hardcore gamers.
Their only hiccup was the PlayStation 3, whose sales were initially eclipsed by the Xbox 360. Sony eventually closed the gap, and Microsoft lost its momentum in 2013 with the underwhelming Xbox One. They have not recovered much.