When Sony announced eight days ago that the PlayStation 4 had sold 2.1 million units worldwide, Microsoft declined to update the public on its own sales numbers (past the million day one Xbox One sales announced the week before). The company broke that silence today, announcing that the Xbox One has sold more than 2 million units worldwide since launching in 13 countries on November 22.
Microsoft points out that means the system is “averaging over 111,111 units sold per day—a record-setting pace for Xbox.” That’s a hair slower than the aggregate average of about 123,500 daily units represented by Sony’s 2.1 million sales in the 17 days between November 15 and December 1.
The PS4 is currently available in 32 countries to the Xbox One’s 13, though, and both console makers stress that they are selling practically every unit they can put into the retail channel, regardless of the raw numbers. As Microsoft VP of Strategy and Marketing Yusuf Mehdi put it today, “Demand is exceeding supply in our 13 launch markets and Xbox One is sold out at most retailers.”
These kinds of early sellouts are par for the course as far as major holiday-season console launches for at least the last decade, though. The raw numbers are higher than ever this time around, and it’s a good sign for console gaming that people still seem eager to upgrade seven or eight years after the last generation's major console launches. But if history is any guide, a speedy launch doesn’t guarantee either system will be able to maintain its record sales pace even through next year.
As for the great race for console market dominance between Sony and Microsoft, we likely won’t see significant separation before next spring, if then. At some point, though, one or both systems will start to see retail supplies catching up as overall demand from early adopters begins to be satisfied. That will be the first real sign that one company or the other is establishing itself as the primary system-to-beat in this new console generation.
