Microsoft was once very close to Sony and its PlayStation. It happened in the late 2000s with the launch of the Xbox 360 which, in many markets, had the success of outselling the brand new PS3. While that’s not the case in Europe, in places like the US and UK, Microsoft has come to believe that now is the time to give the exceeding definitive.
a painful mirage
This job well done by Microsoft with the Xbox 360, which began by anticipating the release of the PS3 and creating a machine as powerful as the Japanese, was cut short in 2013 with Xbox One which is, to date, the biggest American fiasco: a dubious machine power was followed by a calamitous launch strategy (100 dollars more expensive than the PS4 because of having insisted on launching it with Kinect).
The thing is, with the Xbox Series X, Microsoft sought to redeem itself in a truly adverse scenario where it looks like PlayStation has definitely taken the lead. At the time of writing, the PS5 has already accumulated sales of around 34 million consoles, for the 21 totaled by the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S.
From now on, the two Microsoft machines that make up its new generation,How do they fare in terms of sales compared to their biggest hit, which was the Xbox 360?? Well, we have the data of what happened in the first 28 months from the launch date and the news is really positive. See.
above but below
Indeed, if we stick to the comparison with what the Xbox Series X | S achieved against the Xbox 360, we will see that it maintains a positive trend of constant growth that has allowed it to reach these nearly 21 million consoles sold between the two models. This means that they are approximately 3.5 million more than was achieved by Xbox 360
This means that the current generation of consoles, despite the lack of stock of the first months improved Microsoft’s big hit in 2005, reached the milestones of 5, 10, 15 and 20 million machines sold long before the Xbox 360. As you can see in the graph that we leave you just above.
Now here’s the bad news: the current console market has grown significantly with a much larger critical mass of users, which greatly dilutes the potential success that those of Phil Spencer want to celebrate. Especially if we look at these 34 million PS5s and, above all, the brutality of the figures for the Nintendo Switch, which has just exceeded 123 million units sold.
With all of the above, it is clear that Microsoft has to row a lot to get closer to Sony to which, little by little, it is reducing a certain margin, in particular supported by the irresistible offer that the Xbox Game Pass supposes and its more than 450 games for only 13 dollars per month. Thing that remains to be seen if he gives him strength so that in the next generation he can reduce his gap disadvantaged against the Japanese. The one between Xbox One and PS4, for example, has become much larger than the current one with PS5.
