Microsoft has sold more than 21 million Xbox Series consoles

[Shawn Knight]

In a nutshell: During a recent presentation in Brazil, Microsoft announced that it has sold over 21 million Xbox Series consoles to date. Although Redmond did not provide a breakdown of sales by individual model, the tech giant did highlight that 48 percent of Xbox Series S players are new to the Xbox platform.

The Xbox Series S data seemingly highlights the effectiveness of offering a lower-end option in addition to the flagship Xbox Series X. Newcomers can enter the Xbox ecosystem for just $299, which is $100 less than the starting price of Sony's cheapest PlayStation 5. If sold on the experience, it could encourage some owners to upgrade to the higher-end Xbox Series X or consider Microsoft's top-tier console when the next generation arrives.

Microsoft added that combined Xbox Series and Xbox One sales have surpassed 79 million units. By doing some simple calculations, this indicates that Microsoft sold approximately 58 million Xbox One consoles during its lifetime. Microsoft launched its Xbox One near the end of 2013 and halted production at the end of 2020.

For comparison, as of March 31, 2022, Sony has shipped 117.2 million PlayStation 4 consoles.

Xbox Series X|S console sales are at 21M+ according to Microsoft at BIG Festival in Brazil.

Credit to @LucasTaves for this information. This is all part of an ID@Xbox presentation pic.twitter.com/cOYtQSfwxN

– John Welfare (@Welfare_JBP) June 29, 2023

This admission is noteworthy because Microsoft stopped reporting console sales some time ago after losing the "console wars." Although they did not directly acknowledge it until recently, this lack of reporting meant people had to reply on research data and other sources of information to make educated guesses about Xbox sales.

As of March 31, 2023, Sony had sold around 38.4 million PlayStation 5 consoles. The company's next earnings report is due on August 4, and it will be interesting to see how many additional consoles the company has sold over the last three months.

Microsoft's rare admission during the presentation in Brazil could be seen as another attempt to portray itself as a smaller player in the console market. By doing so, Microsoft may have a better chance of convincing regulators that its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard would not result in anti-competitive practices.

Image credit: Pixabay

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https://www.techspot.com/news/99276-microsoft-has-sold-more-than-21-million-xbox.html

 

[texasrattler]

MS gave up on the so called console war years before anything was ever announced. They had said they weren't worried about the console. All that ever did was get them into consoles, it's their services that make them the real money. And a lot of money they do make.
I don't even think they made money on a console until the xbox one and that may have been a year or 2 into its cycle.

 

[Dimitriid]

The other point is that Microsoft is also further hiding their size by not actually counting the PC in their numbers and that's never going to be able to be counted because of muddied those waters are: If you count by Windows Store games sold? Yeah those numbers are very poor. But should you count by Microsoft First Party devs like Bethesda now? Because even just Bethesda PC game sales that's a healthy chunk added.

If I was Sony's lawyer however, it would be even more convenient to count basically all Windows games as part of Microsoft's gaming platform because even though some games now work on Linux 99.99% of all PC games are meant to run just on Windows. However that's too much of a stretch even though Sony gets a count of any game that runs on a Playstation period, they could argue that at any point Microsoft could demand revenue share for every game that runs on Windows, specially with their efforts to eventually lock down Windows out of running third party programs they don't approve (And henceforth, get a piece of) is not like there's no precedent: There was already an attempt of a Windows version that was not going to run anything not UWP

However the overall point is that Microsoft would like people to eventually just buy Xbox games or better yet xbox game pass whenever you play those cloud based, on an xbox console or on a capable PC. Not saying this will ever happen for them because I have serious doubts, but it is their strategy at least to move in that direction and just never actually tell people how many copies a game actually sells because they just want people to be paying them, preferrably a monthly fee, regardless of the platform they support. That's why they ultimately want Activision and would continue to absorb big names because if the Activision purchase goes through it might be very difficult to actually argue they have a monopoly even though they would absolutely have one.

 

[kiwigraeme]

PS5 are now easy to get - already seeing sales on them.
48% new customers is the big one - wonder if was due to difficulty to buy a PS5

However if I was starting out with a family I would buy an Xbox -The game pass is instant game library - including many newly released ,

MS is in for the long haul - which is funny given Toyota, Honda and other Japanese companies - in 60s 70s and 80s - before USA started penalties for dumping - ie market share at cost of revenue

 

[dangh]

However if I was starting out with a family I would buy an Xbox -The game pass is instant game library - including many newly released

I'm not at all in GAAS as they are simply bad for consumer in a long term, but tbh PS5 PS Extra have more games than game pass, most of them are better, and even if they are not newest one, MS do not have any 'must have' new titles trumping competition. Especially for family, there are more games I'd be happy to give my kid on ps platform.

 

[kiwigraeme]

I'm not at all in GAAS as they are simply bad for consumer in a long term, but tbh PS5 PS Extra have more games than game pass, most of them are better, and even if they are not newest one, MS do not have any 'must have' new titles trumping competition. Especially for family, there are more games I'd be happy to give my kid on ps platform.

We have a PS4 and PS3 - I got the PS3 as more kids games - I always wondered why MS didn't just target this market more - I mean Apple , Google even MS chase school and students

once you have someone in the ecosystem.
PS3 was really before gamepass

If I was in charge Xbox back then I would have massively gone after kids games
Nintendo does well mainly on Kids/family friendly games

Plus I will get The PS5pro when it comes out as I have a PC so don't really need an Xbox

 

[m3tavision]

Between the PS5 & Xbox, that is a lot of people gaming on RDNA...

 

[p51d007]

Most console games, x-box, playstation etc are the modern version of the razor/razor blade.
The sell you the box, but REALLY make their money on the games.
The subscription model, for a lot of companies is a good deal. Instead of making a ton of money
when a new model comes along, then the money train trails off until a new model comes along,
the subscription model I guess makes it easier to know what your revenue stream is.

 

[loki1944]

Cut the number of xbox 360s by 1/3 for red rings

 

[tylerb1489]

So ps5 38.4m to 21m Xbox series S|X. Not that bad imo for Microsoft .