In the ongoing battle between PlayStation and Xbox for the favor of players, Sony has mostly been ahead for several years – and in 2023 the duel was again clearly in favor of the PlayStation.
Only yesterday it became public that the PlayStation 5 has now broken the sales mark of 50 million copies and is only slightly behind the PlayStation 4 at the same point in its life cycle since its release. But what does that mean specifically in a duel with the Xbox Series X/S?
The answer to this is provided by the market analysts from Ampere Analysis, according to whom the Sony console was clearly ahead in 2023 and basically gave Microsoft no chance. Accordingly, the PlayStation 5 sold roughly three times as often as the Xbox Series X/S. Sony has apparently significantly increased its lead since the release of major exclusive games like Spider-Man 2, after it was reported earlier in the year that the ratio of PS5 to XSX sales was 2:1.
Expressed specifically in numbers, this means: According to Ampere Analysis, around 22.5 million PS5 consoles were sold in 2023. However, only 7.6 million copies of the Xbox Series X/S from Microsoft were sold over the counter. Sales of the Switch are usually a little out of line, because Nintendo’s hybrid console is in a different league in terms of performance. Sony is also leaving the Japanese behind this year, as the much older Switch sold around 16.4 million times.
Far from the absolute numbers, Sony’s current dominance can be seen in other places – because: the trend is your friend. While sales figures for the Switch (-18 percent) and Xbox Series
Especially on Black Friday and in the shopping season since then, the PlayStation 5 has once again taken off. Sony could definitely achieve its ambitious goal of 25 million sales by the end of the fiscal year on March 31, 2024 in this fiscal year alone. In addition, the chances are good that it will actually outperform the PlayStation 4 at the same point in the console cycle.
It remains to be seen whether Microsoft will be able to turn things around in the future thanks to the takeover of Activision Blizzard.