PS4 Hits 7 Million - Consoles Really Aren't In Trouble

[BrotherRool]

In fact relative to release times the Xbox One is outselling the Wii.

No it isn't, it's not even close. They'd need to have sold better than 9 million units by the end of may for that to be the case, they'll probably have just over half.

So this was written when Microsoft hadn't given us any of their figures since their Christmas sales, at which point they'd said 3.6 million compared to the Wii's 3.2 million in a similar time period.

And then by the end of March, which is the figure Microsoft have just released, the Wii had only sold 5.8 million, which is less than the PS4 and only a little over the 5 million number MS just announced.

However I made the mistake of not noticing MS were talking about shipping figures, so actually they were fairly largely behind the Wii at both those points (although still ahead of the 360). The Wii sells 9.27 million by it's 9th month which the PS4 may or may not hit but the Xbox One certainly won't.

If I had to guess I'd say that Sony does manage to break Wii sales figures again, but that it's going to be really close. I don't think they've got a big game release scheduled for that time. But it's going to be really close, all the consoles last generation and even the Wii U managed to sell about the same number of units in their third quarter as in their second. Sony sold 2.8 million in their second quarter this time which theoretically leaves them at 9.8 million ish.

 

[Lightknight]

Ok, the link to the US chart. If I lose three fingers but only show you one good one does that mean my other fingers are fine too? Keep in mind that the 360 DESTROYED the ps3 in the US. I mean, the ps3 had to buy extra lube at the store every time they even thought of the 360 US market. That the ps4 is beating the XBO even by a little bit is a drastic loss of market share for Microsoft and Sony's lead is even higher in European markets and Microsoft isn't even trying Japan so that's all Sony's too.

Ok, [a href=http://www.joystiq.com/2014/03/17/titanfall-helps-the-xbox-one-almost-double-up-in-the-uk/]here's[/a] the UK chart. Sorry I couldn't find any sales charts for the rest of Europe but don't flame me on that.

That's not a chart. That's an article about titanfall sales doubling XBO sales. But doubling a small number doesn't mean you've turned it into a large number. A 100% increase of 1 unit is still just 2 units. What's more is that the article is just over one week. There's lies and then there's damn lies and now there's whatever this article is trying to prove. So, let's review that week.

http://www.vgchartz.com/tools/hw_date.php?reg=Europe&ending=Weekly

It went from 16,977 units to 31,955. Over the same time frame the PS4 went from 36k to 38k in the same region.
So even that week it didn't beat the PS4. That was the closest they'd ever been to the ps4 and for that one week in march where it sold just 6k fewer units than the ps4. The next week when inFamous was released the PS4 jumped to 67,557 and the XBO dropped back down to 23,521 and hasn't really come back from that and has been under 20k each week since.

Does that sound good to you?

I know the PS4 is still ahead but your idea of this HUGE amount of lost market share might be off. Maybe I'll be more convinced if you actually showed info instead of analogies.

http://www.vgchartz.com/tools/hw_date.php?reg=Europe&ending=Monthly

That's a monthly chart of the console sales in Europe. Hover over each month and you'll notice that the XBO has never been even half the ps4 sales per month since its launch (where it sold 59% of what the ps4 sold). If you switch to yearly you can more accurately quantify the difference overall:

2013: PS4 1.708 million ------ XBO 781 thousand (PS4 outsold the XBO by more than double at a 2.19 ratio)
2014 so far: PS4 846 thousand ------ XBO 256 thousand (PS4 is outselling the XBO by over three times at a 3.30 ratio even with the launch of titanfall last month)

Now, that's all just the UK. Japan doesn't have XBO (but is small numbers any with the ps4 getting half a million there so far this year). US is the only market that's close and the PS4 still has a decent lead there too.

Again, this is in contrast to the last generation where the ps3 was getting destroyed by the 360 for most of its life span by huge gaps and only its international market saved it (the 360 beat the pants off the ps3 every year for the entire generation in the US). That Microsoft lost the majority share in its own market will make the XBO out to be a huge failure on their part. Even if it ends up being profitable.

Did I strike a nerve or something? Settle down. I stand by my words as you still have yet to show some info.

You made an assumption and made a inflammatory comment. Perhaps I'm wasting my time with the discussion if you would resort to insults without knowing any data yourself. You know what kind of person defends a product or service they're a fan of without actually knowing the data they're trying to defend? Joking aside, I will continue this conversation under the assumption that you are merely misinformed and not attempting to flame bait.

Yes, I didn't expect the Xbox to dominate in Japan as THEY NEVER HAVE. But that doesn't represent the whole world.

Microsoft likely made a wise decision to not waste their time in the Japanese market. They never sold more than 350k units in a full year in Japan (in 2013 only 23k 360's were sold compared to PS3 selling 878k). I imagine they lost huge amounts of money on advertising there.

Look, sometimes people say things because of numbers and not because they're fans or not fans of something. At present course, the XBO is doing poorly. When the data shifts, so will my statement.

What numbers? All you've shown is that the PS4 is ahead of the Xbox One, but not this huge market share loss you keep talking about.

Loss of market share.

In the US market from 2005 to present the 360 has sold 42.75 million units. The PS3 has sold 26.08 million.

Of the hardcore (not wii) console market, this means that the 360 owned just over 62% of the US market share. They consistently beat the ps3 year to year with only one year even ever being close (2009) and perhaps this year so far.

The PS4 currently owns 53% of the US market. That's a 72% increase in market share for Sony.

The XBO currently owns 47% of the US market. That's a 76% decrease in market share for Microsoft over the previous generation. That is why I say this is a huge loss of market share for Microsoft. Please, explain to me how you would not call that a drastic loss in market share?

Look, I really enjoy my 360. The kinect has really added a bit of novel fun to several parties I've hosted and I believe the 360 is a better sports and multiplayer system. But numbers are numbers and you can't "fan" them away. This isn't even about quality of console. This is purely sales performance. Also, a huge loss in market share doesn't mean that the XBO is doing terribly. I believe I read that they just beat 5 million units sold. That beats the heck out of the WiiU who has lost the most market share by FAR and are doing terribly.

I just hope that Sony and Microsoft both come away with a profit this time. They're out to a good start with selling their consoles close to cost.

 

[DrOswald]

I am confused, both the Wii U and the Xbone are doing poorly but somehow the success of the PS4 is supposed to make us believe that consoles are not in trouble. Do the math, 2/3 of the main consoles ARE in trouble.

I would say only the Wii U is doing poorly, the Xbone is doing roughly the same numbers as the 360 did in it's first year and despite it's many failings as a piece of hardware it's not failing on sales. The 360 had the market to itself when it launched, so matching those sales with the PS4 looming over it is quite positive.

However, it is selling poorly relative to the PS4, which is selling much faster than anyone expected it to, including Sony. I would say that the completely unexpected success of the PS4 is skewing the market, rather than that the Xbone is failing as such.

The Wii U however is doomed, even with Smash Brothers coming there's no hope for the box nobody wants even at half the price.

Based on the most accurate numbers we have the Wii U has outsold the Xbox One since the release of the Xbox One (that is to say, since November more Wii U's were sold than Xbox One's. But only barely.) Those numbers are only accurate up to Feb, and we think the Xbox One has since caught up, but I don't think that you can say that the Wii U is doomed and the Xbox One is doing fine when their sales numbers are currently very close. Either they are both doomed or they are both fine.

 

[Saucycarpdog]

Snip.

Good, now we've both come away from this more informed now that you've actually posted inf. Like I promised, I'm convinced.

You made an assumption and made a inflammatory comment. Perhaps I'm wasting my time with the discussion if you would resort to insults without knowing any data yourself. You know what kind of person defends a product or service they're a fan of without actually knowing the data they're trying to defend? Joking aside, I will continue this conversation under the assumption that you are merely misinformed and not attempting to flame bait.

If you had shown some data first instead of just resorting to make "inflammatory comments" yourself, then maybe I wouldn't have used such a "terrible insult" as Fanboy. And no, I was not attempting to flame bait, merely making an opinion. Good we got that straightened out.

Look, I really enjoy my 360. The kinect has really added a bit of novel fun to several parties I've hosted and I believe the 360 is a better sports and multiplayer system. But numbers are numbers and you can't "fan" them away. This isn't even about quality of console. This is purely sales performance. Also, a huge loss in market share doesn't mean that the XBO is doing terribly. I believe I read that they just beat 5 million units sold. That beats the heck out of the WiiU who has lost the most market share by FAR and are doing terribly.

I just hope that Sony and Microsoft both come away with a profit this time. They're out to a good start with selling their consoles close to cost.

I agree, as I have seen how much profit Microsoft is making with each Xbox One sold. And I know Microsoft is going to move more units this year with more exclusives coming out in the fall, as will Sony. As I said before, since you actually posted some data instead of using analogies like last post, I'm convinced.

 

[Lightknight]

If you had shown some data first instead of just resorting to make "inflammatory comments" yourself, then maybe I wouldn't have used such a "terrible insult" as Fanboy. And no, I was not attempting to flame bait, merely making an opinion. Good we got that straightened out.

That's not an acceptable justification. If you yourself are ignorant of the subject then you request more before making a wild accusation that the person talking is just a blind little soldier boy doing what big daddy corporation tells them. That's on you.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

In fact relative to release times the Xbox One is outselling the Wii.

No it isn't, it's not even close. They'd need to have sold better than 9 million units by the end of may for that to be the case, they'll probably have just over half.

No kidding; people keep going on about the PR with the new consoles sales, but that's all it is: PR. Fact of the matter is that the XB1 and the PS4 aren't going to touch their immediate predecessors' numbers, let alone that of the Wii's. They would have to sell 20 million. In ONE YEAR. Neither of them have even hit 10 million and I just can't see that happening anytime soon. They'll hit the "hardcore", but I really wonder if anyone besides the "hardcore" really cares that much about the new tech.

 

[BrotherRool]

In fact relative to release times the Xbox One is outselling the Wii.

No it isn't, it's not even close. They'd need to have sold better than 9 million units by the end of may for that to be the case, they'll probably have just over half.

No kidding; people keep going on about the PR with the new consoles sales, but that's all it is: PR. Fact of the matter is that the XB1 and the PS4 aren't going to touch their immediate predecessors' numbers, let alone that of the Wii's. They would have to sell 20 million. In ONE YEAR. Neither of them have even hit 10 million and I just can't see that happening anytime soon. They'll hit the "hardcore", but I really wonder if anyone besides the "hardcore" really cares that much about the new tech.

But we have the cold hard numbers that shows these consoles are already outselling the previous generation. The Wii sold 5.86 million units in it's first 6 months. The PS4 sold 7 million. The 360 sold 3.2 million in it's first six months, the Xbox One has sold over 4 million by most reasonable estimates.

Are you talking about the sales at the end of the second christmas? Because the PS4 is definitely going to beat both the PS3 and the 360 on those numbers. The 360 sold 7.6 million by the end of it's second Christmas. There's no frigging way that the PS4 is going to sell less than 600,000 units in the next half a year. Equally the PS4 is going to be challenge the PS3's second christmas 10.5 million numbers by August, never mind after the actual christmas season.

I agree the PS4 won't outsell the Wii by the end of the year, even if it is outselling the Wii right now. The casual market isn't there and Sony aren't trying to sell to that market in the first place. I still wouldn't be surprised if the PS4 managed to hit 14-15 million by the end of December.


If you're making the argument that strong sales now are held up by the hardcore but they'll flop as soon as the hardcore run out...well it's possible, but if that were true we'd have seen some evidence of it right? If it doesn't attract the non-hardcore then it should attract the hardcore a little less too right? It's not like hardcoreness is a binary state, there's degrees of devotion and if the undevoted are unattracted it should peel away some of the moderately devoted too. Instead we've seen record sales for both consoles. The software companies are onboard with the new generation and everything is behaving like a normal cycle.

It's totally within the realms of possibility, but my point is there's a lot of evidence that this is a normal console cycle and no evidence that it's not. The evidence is nowhere close to conclusive but that still means the side with any evidence at all is more believable than the one without

 

[kaizen2468]

While the competition did screw up a lot, ps4 has done alot of stuff right and deserves the succes

 

[Lightknight]

While the competition did screw up a lot, ps4 has done alot of stuff right and deserves the succes

Right. It didn't just manage to "not screw up". It actually provided a great deal for the price, the right services and a decent lineup of games planned. And it didn't screw up of course.

 

[ShinyCharizard]

Oh yes, and there's soooo many games for those 7mil people to play on their shiny new PS4s.

Like... like, um... well, that one with the, err... ohh, ohh, that one game with the... the, err... the stuff that...

Huh.

Hahahahahahahahahaha.

This is true, why are people buying these things right now? Ain't nothing worth playing on it. I'm going to wait until at least Destiny and Metal Gear Solid 5 come out.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Hahahahahahahahahaha.

This is true, why are people buying these things right now? Ain't nothing worth playing on it. I'm going to wait until at least Destiny and Metal Gear Solid 5 come out.

Because the kind of people who need them are tech junkies. It's not about the games, it's about them gushing over a bunch of technical jargon that no one else cares about. Fact of the matter is that the first year to two years of a console's life is going to be a beta test for figuring out the hardware. And considering how many games are cross generation so far, I doubt that's going to change anytime soon. Oh sure, publishers and devs will try to tempt people with stuff like Batman: Arkham Knight or the next Assassin's Creed, but in all honesty I very much doubt they're going to pull as big of numbers as they THINK they will.

 

[gorfias]

Looking at these posts, this might be a bit counter intuitive, but guess what: Sony's PS4 numbers are good. Very good. And it is going to get better.

I've written before: Rush Limbaugh was spoken to around 2000 by someone stating that 720P would never take off. No one wanted it. Not enough of an advance over 480i to be worth while and too expensive.

He asked, will TV look better by 2050? Of course. We have to get there from here in steps. By 2017, PS3 graphics will be TOTALLY unacceptable. Forget what you see on youtube (can't do the differences justice). The difference is already there (Infamous 2 vs. 3 for instance). PS4 buries PS3. And people are going to want it.

It will do great and TC: the numbers are terrific. Thank you for sharing.

 

[Maximum Bert]

I am surprised that the PS4 and the Xbox One are doing as well as they are because there is so little to play on them that its really not worth buying them imo. I have two friends who bought both and they play neither but then they like being first adopters for some reason.

The WiiU may be worth picking up this year finally (already have one, bought it for a few games) but I cant see any games that will make me pick up a PS4 or Xbox One this year (and im never picking up an Xbox One on principle). Then again I see no games that will make me upgrade my middle of the road 5 year old PC either (middle of the road 5 years ago).

I am glad the PS4 is doing better than the Xbox One after the crap they tried to pull though if they had got away with that and set a trend I would have been out of gaming, well once I had finished my massive backlog and purchased all the great past games I always wanted to play but never had time to.

 

[kilenem]

Sony as a company isn't doing amazing Even with the 7 million sells they just lost 1.1 billion dollars. The VITA TV bombing. They've been laying off Devs for the Last Two years including Devs form the delayed game Drive Club. Even with the Success of the PS4 it isn't clear if Sony will make a profit. I'm scared that Sony won't be able to continue making PlayStations or that the brand gets sold off.

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

In fact relative to release times the Xbox One is outselling the Wii.

No it isn't, it's not even close. They'd need to have sold better than 9 million units by the end of may for that to be the case, they'll probably have just over half.

So this was written when Microsoft hadn't given us any of their figures since their Christmas sales, at which point they'd said 3.6 million compared to the Wii's 3.2 million in a similar time period.

And then by the end of March, which is the figure Microsoft have just released, the Wii had only sold 5.8 million, which is less than the PS4 and only a little over the 5 million number MS just announced.

However I made the mistake of not noticing MS were talking about shipping figures, so actually they were fairly largely behind the Wii at both those points (although still ahead of the 360). The Wii sells 9.27 million by it's 9th month which the PS4 may or may not hit but the Xbox One certainly won't.

If I had to guess I'd say that Sony does manage to break Wii sales figures again, but that it's going to be really close. I don't think they've got a big game release scheduled for that time. But it's going to be really close, all the consoles last generation and even the Wii U managed to sell about the same number of units in their third quarter as in their second. Sony sold 2.8 million in their second quarter this time which theoretically leaves them at 9.8 million ish.

arent those 5 million from MS SHIPPED units? theres a difference between shipped and sold

 

[JET1971]

and the PC market isn't dying. The PREBUILT PCs are dying because they are scams, PC gaming is growing and is doing just fine. Nvidia can attest to that. desktops will be around for work, and smart phone around for dicking around.

business is not done on smart phones or tablets by the simple virtue of input.

Dang it I was going to say that. But there is more to it than that, all the big prebuilt PC manufacturers jumped onto the mobile platform and basically ignored the desktop market. Basically started making 1-2 desktop models and 10 notebook/netbook models. It is hard to get good sales for desktop PC's when there's 3 in the store to choose from and 30 laptops. Also PC sales figures is for Desktop's. Laptops and netbooks are factored as a separate category like Linux box's and Apple are. Basically the big prebuilt PC manufacturers shot themselves in the foot.

OT:
As for "Consoles Really Aren't In Trouble", I believe this generation is the last generation of what people consider a "console". Even the last generation has broke from the mold and started becoming something else when they introduced installing and patching games. Then there's the Steam box that is basically a PC running a flavor of Linux but takes all the confusion of a Linux distro and hides it. The Steam box console concept I think is what the next gen of consoles will be like. A new OS built for gaming but can also do PC things and is made to feel like a traditional console. The Steam Box model has all the best that PC gaming offers and all that Console gaming offers and if things go right when they actually enter the market the "Box" manufacturers and Valve will put a serious dent in PC and Console gaming markets especially because you can build your own Steam Box.

But it is not just about the Steam Box that will change the console market from traditional console, it is the direction that the console makers except stuck in the past Nintendo are already heading. At the end of the last generation the consoles were more like a PC than ever before(PS3 used to have a dual boot option and could run Linux!) and this generation is trying even harder to be more PC like but still stuck with trying to be a proprietary gaming machine by just not biting the bullet and adding KB/M support and an OS users can use for other things like posting comments at The Escapist.

If they give up pretending to be a traditional console and become a Personal Computer(PC) for the living room it would benefit everyone including the console makers because they can have others manufacture the hardware to run their OS and use their controller. That's called competition for better hardware for lower prices driving the market to improve rather than the stagnation they seem to prefer these days so they can milk it for all it's no longer worth.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

Saying things like "OH YEAH WELL PS4 NO GAMES!" is kind of removed from the point. OP isn't really making any statement about the quality of the actual console. They're saying that the ps4 has sold more consoles in this timespan than the PS3 and 360 combined. It's indicitive of a demand that the industry will see profit in satiating. The fact that the PS4 has sold so well despite not having any huge console movers (aside from maybe infamous) if anything fortifies the point that the thing is very successful so far.

This is a website where the general consensus is that Call of Duty is a terrible game series, big jiggly boobs are stupid, and PC gaming is the future. We're hardly a good place to get a sample of majority market or opinion.

PC gaming is thriving too, don't get me wrong. IIRC League of Legends is the most played game in the world and there's something like 70 million steam accounts. It's really hard to say how many of those people are legitimately PC gamers though. League of Legends is a free game that requires very little hardware power, and having a steam account is pretty much one layer past having a facebook now.

What I do know is a heavily xbox-centric audience made every Call of Duty game a record breaking media launch consecutively for years until the launch of GTA 5, which wasn't even on the PC. It was only on the consoles, neither of which by this point in their lifespan had sold as well as their predecessors especially in the case of the PS4.

So yeah, basically consoles still are and may continue to be a big thing in some way shape or form. The only x factor right now is the whole steam machine project. Depending on the level of its success or failure it will either show investors that the line between console and PC gaming is ready to be blurred or it isn't.

tl;dr: Money and market data make this industry turn and the numbers are there for consoles, especially the PS4.

 

[Savagezion]

This is a website where the general consensus is that Call of Duty is a terrible game series, big jiggly boobs are stupid, and PC gaming is the future. We're hardly a good place to get a sample of majority market or opinion.

LOL, so true. That cracked me up.

Yeah GTA 5 had some crazy numbers too. To not be on PC, that I see as huge. (As a pc gamer) Steambox is a cool and funky device. PC gamers are like "YEAH" but they aren't the target so they don't care. I wouldn't doubt Steam is just a name, if that, to many console gamers.

No Blueray player could hurt. Hell no disc of any kind. A PC without a ROM drive.