PlayStation 4 Shipped Triple The Number Of Xbox One Consoles Last Quarter
The PlayStation 4 continued its sales dominance during Sony’s first fiscal quarter of 2015 that ran from April through June. Shipments of the console nearly tripled that of Microsoft’s Xbox One during the same time period, extending Sony’s dominance in the current generation.
Sony its financial earnings for its 2015 fiscal first quarter and revealed that the PlayStation 4 shipped 3 million units during the period. That’s an increase from the 2.7 million units shipped during the same time frame last year.
That number is actually a bit surprising, as the months from April to June are traditionally a weak sales period for consoles, the PS4 still has not received a price cut, and there were no major AAA first-party PlayStation franchises released. What Sony did have on its side was the momentum it has built up since the console’s launch, especially in Europe, combined with the exclusive Bloodborne released at the end of March and a marketing deal for Batman: Arkham Knight that included a PlayStation 4 bundle.
By comparison, Microsoft shipped 1.4 million consoles between the Xbox One and Xbox 360 during the same quarter this year, as previously covered. While the exact split is unknown, the prevailing thought is that the Xbox One shipped over 1 million by itself.
The PlayStation 4 effectively shipped three times the number of consoles as the Xbox One. Additionally, the total number of PS4 units shipped has just passed 25 million worldwide, compared to approximately 12 to 14 million worldwide for the Xbox One.
The good news continued to roll for Sony with the PlayStation 4. The company is increasing its forecast of units shipped for the 2015 fiscal year from 16 million to 16.5 million. That should put the number of PS4 consoles out worldwide to just under 40 million this time in 2016.
As previously discussed, the difference in sales numbers between the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One primarily comes from Europe. Sony’s console enjoys a lead in North America, but Microsoft has been able to keep it close in the region and occasionally come out on top some months. The same goes for the United Kingdom. Continental Europe is a different story, however, where the PlayStation 4 enjoys a 70 to 90 percent market share in the different countries there.
Both Microsoft and Sony are at Asia’s largest gameshow, ChinaJoy, this week, where they are competing for the attention of gamers in China. This will be followed by Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, next week, where Xbox will be holding a media briefing and have a show floor presence at Europe’s biggest gaming convention. PlayStation will have a floor presence, but is skipping the press event. This may be Microsoft’s best shot at gaining mindshare in Europe with for this generation, with Sony’s diminished presence and a lack of AAA exclusives being released this holiday shopping season.
[Images via PlayStation, Sony]
