According to detailed statistical estimates, sales of the PS5 game console sold twice as much as the Xbox Series X/S.
According to data from analytics firm Ampere Analysis, PlayStation 5 sales to consumers were about 1.7 times higher than Xbox Series X/S sales as of the end of 2021. Earlier this month, Sony said they shipped 17.3 million PS5 consoles to retailers at the end of December. And Ampere research director Piers Harding-Rolls thinks nearly all of those units have already reached consumers. last year.
“Sony ended 2021 with PS5 sales reaching 17.1 million units, roughly 1.7 times the performance of Xbox Series sales,” the analyst said in a research note this week. . “At this early stage, the global sales momentum is with Sony, but it will be disappointing that its potential has been diminished by product availability.”
Still, the Xbox Series X/S continues to sell faster than any previous generation of Microsoft’s consoles, said Phil Spencer, the company’s chief game officer. Unlike its competitors, Microsoft does not make Xbox hardware shipment figures public along with its quarterly financial results. Previously, Niko Partners senior analyst Daniel Ahmad estimated that Xbox Series X/S shipments hit 12 million units by the end of 2021, but Harding-Rolls believes the platform’s user numbers are significantly lower. .
“Microsoft ended 2021 with the Xbox Series of devices reaching cumulative sales of 10.3 million units,” he estimated. “This is on par with the previous generation Xbox One cycle.” Harding-Rolls says the significant shortage of Xbox Series X last year was partially offset by the availability of Xbox Series S. “Xbox Series S is cheaper, less powerful, but more convenient. often bundled with Xbox Game Pass, fueling an increased consumer base. Ampere estimates that Series S sales are higher than Series X sales by the end of 2021.”
Harding-Rolls recently said he expects the PS5 to outsell the Xbox Series X/S this year. He has forecast sales of 18 million for Sony consoles in 2022 and sales of nine million for Microsoft systems.
However, he expects the Switch to be the top console of the year with sales of 21 million units. The Switch recently overtook the Wii to become Nintendo’s best-selling home console of all time with total shipments reaching 103.54 million units as of the end of last year. Harding-Rolls estimates that around 99.7 million units have been sold to consumers by the end of 2021.