The PS4 is still dominating console sales, but the Xbox One is far from finished
After the countless missteps Microsoft made leading up to the launch of the Xbox One, the PS4 has been this generation’s sales leader by a large margin. In spite of Microsoft’s valiant efforts to course-correct over the last two years, it seems as if there’s little hope of the Xbox One ever catching up to the PS4. Even so, there’s an argument to be made that the Xbox One is actually thriving despite the massive sales gap.
The sales for the third quarter of 2015 are in, and the folks over at Ars Technica havebroken down the numbers. From July to September, the PS4 sold four million units, the Xbox One sold roughly 1.85 million, and the Wii U only sold about 0.72 million. Due to ambiguity from the reports, these numbers aren’t exact, but the results are clear. Even if we’re generous in how we calculate the number of Xbox One’s sold, it’s still under two million — less than half of the number of PS4s sold in the same timeframe.
When we look at the overall sales, the situation looks stark. Even with a one-year head start, the Wii U is lagging behind at 10.74 million units sold — a little over 10% of the Wii’s sales total. The Xbox One? Its total sales are somewhere between 15.03 million and 17.3 million. And as for the PS4, it’s sitting on top with a whopping 29.3 million sold. No matter how you look at it, the PS4 is the lead platform this generation. And now that Sony and Microsoft are competing at the same price point, the row has become even harder to hoe for the Xbox team.
With that said, the Xbox One is just now starting to come into its own. It finally has a newHalo game to hang its hat on, and the hotly awaited sequel to 2013’s Tomb Raider reboot will release first on Xbox One later this month. Compare that to the PS4’s pitiful lack of exclusives this holiday season, and the Xbox One is looking pretty good right now.
The PS4 does have Uncharted 4, Street Fighter V, and Horizon: Zero Dawn lined up as heavy hitters for next year, but the Xbox One is getting Quantum Break, ReCore, andGears of War 4. In terms of exclusive games, there’s a lot to look forward to in 2016 for both platforms.
On top of that, we’re only a week away from a huge Xbox One update. This new OS will be based on Windows 10, and will reportedly offer substantial usability and speed improvements from tip to tail. Even better, universal Windows 10 apps will be capable of running on the Xbox One as well as PCs, tablets, and phones. The open app ecosystem that the PS4 so desperately needs is actually being tackled first by Microsoft. Let’s just hope that this spurs Sony to get on the ball.
Without a doubt, the PS4 is more powerful and more popular, but that isn’t slowing Microsoft down one iota. Combine this year’s big games, a brand new OS, and theinevitable Black Friday deals, and it’s hard to deny how compelling the Xbox One has become in the face of adversity.
