Microsoft has confirmed that the Xbox One has sold significantly less than competitor Sony’s PlayStation 4. The company does this in documents sent to the Brazilian market regulator in the context of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision-Blizzard.
Microsoft writes in the documents that the PlayStation 4 has sold more than twice as much as the Xbox One, noted GameLuster. “Sony has surpassed Microsoft in console sales and installed base, with more than twice the sales of Xbox in the previous generation,” the company said. Microsoft submitted the documents to CADE, Brazil’s competition watchdog. The tech giant did so in defense of its intended acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, which it must demonstrate that the company will not gain a monopoly position in the game sector with that acquisition.
The PlayStation 4 is according to the most recent figures Delivered 117.2 million times. That would mean Microsoft shipped fewer than 58.6 million Xbox One consoles since its release in 2013. That’s in line with analysts’ previous estimates. Ampere Analysis published a market survey in 2020 which showed that the Xbox One had an installed base of 51 million copies at the time.
It is for the first time in years that Microsoft paints a picture of Xbox One sales. Microsoft has been secretive about Xbox One sales in the past. The tech giant has not shared any concrete figures on this since 2015. At the time, Microsoft said it would not disclose more deliveries because it would gauge its success more with engagement metrics, such as the number of Xbox Live users.
The new Xbox Series consoles seem to outperform the Xbox One. At the beginning of this year, Ampere Analysis that those consoles would have collectively been delivered 10.5 million units by the end of 2021. The PS5 would have been delivered a total of 17 million times in that same period.