Microsoft admits Xbox One sales are less than half of PS4 sales

Microsoft stopped providing Xbox One sales figures starting in fiscal 2016, instead turning its attention to Xbox Live figures. As a result, the gap between Xbox One and Sony’s PlayStation 4 sales has not been known for nearly seven years. Third-party statistics show that Microsoft’s console sales over the same period were inferior to Sony and Nintendo.

According to Game Lustre, Microsoft has laid out its Xbox One sales in documents it needs to submit to Brazilian regulators due to its acquisition of gaming giant Activision Blizzard. Microsoft says: “Sony has surpassed Microsoft in terms of console sales and install base, having sold more than twice as many [than] Xbox in the last generation.”

Sony no longer provides PlayStation 4 shipment data separately. As of March this year, the cumulative sales volume was 117.2 million units. Although Microsoft did not mention specific sales figures in the document, referring to Sony’s official data, it means that it must be less than 58.5 million units. In fact, Microsoft’s claim is closer to a past research report from the market research firm Ampere Analysis, which showed that the Xbox One had sold 51 million cumulative units by the end of the second quarter of 2020.

At present, Microsoft is closing the gap with Sony through the Xbox Series S/X. According to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, the Xbox Series X/S has surpassed Sony PlayStation 5 in the North American market for three consecutive quarters to become the leader. However, Ampere Analysis said that by the end of 2021, the cumulative sales of Sony PlayStation 5 reached 17 million units, which is about 1.6 times that of Xbox Series X/S. Obviously, Microsoft needs to continue to work hard.