Have you heard?
Microsoft has announced solid financial results for the third quarter of its fiscal year 2022, and among the big topics was record-breaking hardware sales, including a bombshell reveal about the Xbox Series consoles outpacing the PlayStation 5.
VGChartz reports that in March 2022, Microsoft sold approximately 13.87 million Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S consoles combined worldwide.
US NPD HW – Xbox Series was the best-selling hardware platform of both March 2022 and the first quarter in dollars, while Switch led both time periods in unit sales.
— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) April 25, 2022
On December 21, Microsoft announced that it had passed Sony in hardware sales for the first time in over two decades. Microsoft attributed some of its success to Game Pass, an online subscription service that gives players access to hundreds of games.
When Sony and Microsoft’s newest consoles—the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S—launched in November 2020, few predicted that the release would ignite a shortage of consoles, still ongoing into mid-2022.
So far, all three platforms, especially the Nintendo Switch, have experienced record-breaking sales. However, they’re still being underproduced. The shortage can be partly attributed to people and businesses who are mining cryptocurrency and scalpers or resellers that buy the consoles up in bulk.
This means that online retailers like Walmart and Amazon have limited Xbox Series sales to Prime members or Walmart+ subscribers in order to avoid a massive sellout of these consoles.
In addition, according to Microsoft, the Xbox Series has led the market share of current-gen consoles for two quarters in a row in the US, Canada, UK, and Western Europe. A corporate meeting was held, resulting in a tweet from Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of Communication Frank X. Shaw.
With our Xbox Series S and X consoles, we have taken share globally for two quarters in a row and were the market leader this quarter among next gen consoles in the U.S., Canada, U.K., and Western Europe.
— Frank X. Shaw (@fxshaw) April 26, 2022
In recent months, Microsoft has significantly improved its subscription service, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Unlike Sony’s PlayStation Plus Premium, this service gives subscribers access to the entirety of Xbox’s first-party titles at no additional charge.
Additionally, players can download unlimited games directly to their consoles—something not available with Sony’s PS Plus Premium. There is also a sizeable amount of content available through backward compatibility. With an ever-growing library of free and discounted games, it makes little sense for players to pay for another subscription.
Over 10 million Xbox gamers have used the streaming feature and 45% of those subscribers have played more hours than they did before.
It seems like Sony is having difficulty keeping up with demand. Moreover, users are finding the PlayStation 5 more difficult to get their hands on than an Xbox One X. Even though, the PS5 had great initial sales but now it’s gradually decreasing.
Let’s see which one will take the lead in the upcoming months
Which team are you on?
Team Xbox or Team PlayStation?
Let me know in the comment section
