While exact sales figures for this generations consoles haven’t been updated in a bit, new statements from Electronic Arts suggests that Sony’s PlayStation 4 has taken another significant jump over Microsoft’s Xbox One through the end of 2017 (via Ars Technia).
According to the company during its most recent investor conference call (via Variety), CEO Andrew House mentioned that sales of current-generation consoles from both Microsoft and Sony have totaled 103 million at the end of the year. While this is a lot on its own if you combine that with the end-of-year report that Sony had sold 73.6 million PlayStation 4’s through the end of 2017, it’s not too hard to figure out that the Xbox One is being vastly oversold. According to Variety, Microsoft has reached out to call EA’s figures “inaccurate” and reiterate it is focused on providing great content to its user base.
However, if these numbers were somewhat accurate (and EA’s could be a bit off), this would give Sony almost 70% of the worldwide “two-console” market, which is just ridiculous to think about. While Microsoft hasn’t been as loose with their sales numbers as Sony, estimates from the beginning of 2017 peg the system at having sold about 25-30 million units, which would be in line with what Electronic Arts said when all of the math checks out.
Though it certainly seems like the “console wars” for this generation have been decided, it’s still surprising to see Sony with such a huge lead, especially considering how the last generation of consoles went for both companies. With the next generation of consoles likely fast approaching, it will be interesting to see what the final tally of sales ends up being for both companies, but this just goes to show that every console cycle is different.
[Source: Ars Technia, Variety]
