Microsoft stopped reporting Xbox One sales figures at the start of its 2016 fiscal year, focusing instead on Xbox Live numbers. The change meant we never officially knew how well the Xbox One held up compared to the PS4 after the Xbox One’s troubled launch. Analyst estimates have consistently placed Microsoft in third place behind Sony and Nintendo, and now documents (Word doc) filed with Brazil’s national competition regulator (spotted by Game Luster) finally shed some light on how the generation of Xbox One. “Sony has overtaken Microsoft in terms of console sales and installed base, having sold more than twice as many Xboxes in the last generation,” Microsoft admits, as translated from Portuguese. Sony is no longer reporting PS4 shipments, meaning lifetime sales have reached 117.2 million since March. While Microsoft hasn’t provided a specific sales figure for the Xbox One, accepting it means the company must have sold less than about 58.5 million units. This is in line with market research from Ampere Analysis in 2020, which puts the Xbox One install base at 51 million units at the end of Q2 2020. The Nintendo Switch is currently at 111.08 million lifetime sales, and it appears that it will come to PS4 later this year. Xbox Series S helps bridge sales gap on PlayStation.Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge However, Microsoft seems to be closing this huge gap with the Xbox Series S / X consoles. Ampere Analysis says that “Sony ended 2021 with cumulative PS5 sales reaching 17 million units, roughly 1.6 times the sales performance of the Xbox series”. While Microsoft recoded a quarterly hardware revenue decline for Xbox recently, CEO Satya Nadella said Microsoft has been “the market leader in North America for three consecutive quarters among next-gen consoles.” Microsoft is yet to release official Xbox sales figures. The Xbox One may not have sold well, but Microsoft’s work on the Xbox One generation laid some important groundwork for the Xbox Series S/X. Microsoft turned the Xbox Series X around with 1440p support, variable refresh rate (VRR), and more 120Hz games all at launch thanks to testing these features on previous Xbox One consoles. Microsoft’s admission of weak Xbox One sales comes as part of a broader dispute between Sony and Microsoft over the Xbox maker’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Sony and Microsoft are both at loggerheads over Call of Duty, game subscriptions and more as Microsoft tries to clear its Brazil acquisition. Microsoft also claimed in documents filed with the Brazilian regulator that Sony is paying for “blocking rights” to prevent developers from adding their content to Xbox Game Pass.
