Sales figures from Take-Two have unintentionally revealed the divide between the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, and it isn’t wanting good for Microsoft.
While it’s clear Sony’s PlayStation 5 has far surpassed gross sales of the Xbox Series X/S, the dearth of concrete numbers from Microsoft makes it unimaginable to know precisely how a lot it’s bought.
Microsoft stopped publicly reporting Xbox gross sales in 2015, not-so coincidentally across the identical time when Xbox One gross sales started to path behind the PlayStation 4. Since then, the corporate has as a substitute touted figures round Xbox Game Pass subscribers – though much less commonly than it as soon as did, as these numbers have failed to maneuver as quick as they hoped.
We’ve had indications of the low gross sales of the Xbox Series X/S many occasions earlier than, however due to Rockstar Games proprietor Take-Two we now have a extra precise determine.
According to Take-Two’s Q3 2025 earnings report, over 94 million consoles from the present era (which doesn’t embrace the Nintendo Switch) are estimated to have been bought, as of November 2024.
While there’s no definitive console break up within the report, Sony beforehand introduced it had shipped 65.5 million PlayStation 5 consoles as of September 30, 2024. Based on this determine, meaning the Xbox Series X/S should have bought round 28.5 million worldwide, which traces up with prior estimates.
Both figures could have elevated by this level, though Microsoft itself has made it clear that Xbox console gross sales over Christmas weren’t good.
Based on the figures above, meaning Sony’s PlayStation 5 has roughly 70% of the general present era gross sales, in comparison with 30% for the Xbox Series X/S.
For Microsoft, this ratio is even worse than the earlier era. The Xbox One bought 58 million items in opposition to 117 million items for Sony’s PlayStation 4, so it had roughly 50% of gross sales, in the event you exclude the Nintendo Switch.
It’s additionally a pointy decline from Microsoft’s presence within the console market through the Xbox 360 era, when it bought 84 million items worldwide, in comparison with the PlayStation 3’s 87.4 million.
The Xbox Series X/S isn’t the worst-selling Xbox console although, with the unique Xbox promoting solely 24 million items. The first console was shortly deserted to be able to launch the Xbox 360 early and there’s some suggestion that Microsoft could also be planning the same strategy for the Xbox Series X/S’s successor.
Despite Microsoft’s failure with the Xbox Series X/S, the corporate is creating a subsequent era console and presumably a separate handheld system. It stays to be seen although what Microsoft can supply, past hyperbolic guarantees of the ‘largest technical leap ever’, to entice folks away from Sony’s secure.
The function of Microsoft’s subsequent console is even murkier contemplating the corporate has shifted its priorities into turning into a multiplatform writer, with many Xbox video games now popping out on PlayStation 5 and ultimately Nintendo Switch 2.
Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, go away a remark beneath, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our e-newsletter.
To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features extra simply, with out the necessity to ship an e-mail, simply use our Submit Stuff web page right here.
For extra tales like this, test our Gaming web page.
MORE: PS5 is getting two extra Xbox unique video games this yr
MORE: Microsoft announce Forza Horizon 5 for PS5 – Switch 2 additionally rumoured
MORE: What Xbox exclusives are confirmed for PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2?
