Xbox console sales are falling as Microsoft brings games to the PS5

After months of debate about Xbox’s future, as some of their big console exclusives moved to the PlayStation 5, we have the clearest evidence yet as to why Microsoft is experimenting with one new multiplatform approach: Fewer and fewer people are buying Xboxes.

The technology giant announced this its results in the third quarter that Xbox Series X and S revenue was down 30 percent year-over-year. The crash was blamed on a “lower volume of consoles sold” at the start of 2024. If this sounds like a repeat of last year, that’s because it is. “Xbox hardware sales fell 30% compared to last year’s strong comparable, driven by lower volume of consoles sold,” Microsoft said reported in April 2023

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In February, Grand Theft Auto VI Parent company Take-Two claimed this was the case in a presentation to investors There were around 77 million “Gen 9” consoles in people’s homes. It didn’t take long for fans to do the math and speculate that Microsoft had only sold around 25 million Xbox Series X/S consoles so far. That puts it ahead of the GameCube, but behind the Nintendo 64, at least for now. Given the results this quarter too, it doesn’t seem like Game Pass and Starfield moved the needle a lot.

Maybe that will change someday call of Dutywhich Microsoft acquired last fall along with the rest of Activision Blizzard, is finally making its way to Game Pass. Diablo IV just arrived on the Netflix-like subscription platform this month. Given that the fate of the Xbox Series

Sea of ​​Thievesthe last of four games in this first series for PS5, dominated the top sellers in the PlayStation Store

list last week. CEO Satya Nadella specifically pointed this out during a call with investors, noting that Microsoft has more games in the top 25 bestsellers on the PS5 than any other publisher. “We are committed to meeting gamers where they are by bringing great games to more people on more devices,” he said.

If gamers there continue to flock to the live-service pirate sim, it’s not hard to imagine Microsoft bringing another batch of its first-party exclusives to the rival platform. Whether this means more recent blockbusters Starfield or what is to come Indiana Jones It remains to be seen which game will make the journey one day.

Even though Xbox Series sales figures earlier this year, The company promised The next console would be the “biggest technical leap” in hardware history to date. And Xbox President Sarah Bond recently said the company “stays committed” for backwards compatibility and game preservation for players’ current and future libraries.

Update 04/25/2024 5:57 p.m. ET: Added details from the conference call.

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