Microsoft is downplaying the need to own an Xbox in the wake of several years focused on Game Pass and the new “everything is an Xbox campaign,” and the market continues to head down that road as a result.
New sales estimates from VGChartz (very much not official figures, but it can usually indicate trendlines), say that in November 2024, console sales were:
- PS5 – 4.1M
- Switch – 1.7M
- Xbox Series – 767K
PS5 was bolstered by the PS5 Pro, making for an 18% boost from a year ago, while Xbox X/S sales are down 25%. Switch is nearly the same, just a slight dip. That ratio means that the PS5 sold 5.4 times more consoles than the Xbox did that month. This year, the estimate puts PS5 at 15.31 million to Xbox’s 4.01 million, just under a 4:1 ratio.
The caveats here are that Xbox has a large number of Xbox Game Pass subscriptions that effectively endlessly print money, even if it may be approaching the ceiling on that subscription base. The newly refreshed marketing idea is to show gamers and non-gamers you can play Xbox games on a bunch of things that are not Xboxes, like non-gaming laptops, phones, tablets, even Amazon Fire Sticks, albeit that is through cloud streaming, not intrinsic downloads. But as I’ve always said, I am not sure what the market is for someone interested in a monthly subscription for dozens of core Xbox games that sees buying a $300 or so console as a roadblock. Microsoft, pleading its acquisition case in court, said itself cloud gaming is a tiny part of the market.
The combination of Xbox already being PlayStation since last generation, and this new push to downplay Xbox hardware as necessary to enjoy Xbox games has resulted in the continued declines. It has also led to an odd place where the “everything is an Xbox” movement is now sometimes extending to PS5, and for more than just existing series like Call of Duty. Microsoft has said that in theory nothing is off the table for multiplatform release at this point, and it’s become possible, if not likely, it may put many of its upcoming big games on both PlayStation and Xbox, the draw being you get them “free” on day one if you have Game Pass.
Microsoft has repeatedly said they are not getting out of the hardware game, despite all this. Next on deck is supposedly some sort of Xbox handheld that will be perhaps a more logical way to play Xbox games “anywhere” if it can manage to emulate the appeal of the Switch. That will be something PlayStation does not have and cannot match (at least for now, as rumblings are Sony may be working on something in that vein too). And there does not seem to be any indication Xbox will not make a next-gen console a few years from now as this one ends. If there’s one thing all these numbers show, it’s that console gaming is not going anywhere. Though that is not ideal for Xbox, trying to convince people to hang out in the cloud.
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