Microsoft is expanding. After all, with the purchase of Activision Blizzard, the tech giant brings important games like Call of Duty under its control. Nevertheless, he has to admit that the competitor Sony is much more successful with the PlayStation.
PlayStation is way ahead of Xbox
Microsoft and Sony are two of them with their Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 consoles most powerful competitors in the gaming world. However, the US tech giant now admits that the Xbox is actually far behind.
In a response to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Microsoft says Sony has been leading the gaming console market for 20 years. Just like Nintendo, the PlayStation is ahead of the Xbox “in all relevant metrics”. According to the report, Sony already has 2021 around 151.4 million PlayStation consoles sold. In contrast, Microsoft has sold only 63.7 million Xbox consoles (source: Microsoft).
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Microsoft defends Activision-Blizzard deal
But why is Microsoft publicly admitting how much better the console is selling to the competition? This is due to the CMA’s ongoing investigation into the Activision-Blizzard deal. The monopoly guards had expressed fears that Microsoft would no longer release popular games like Call of Duty for other consoles and could harm the competition.
Microsoft is now hitting back, making it clear that even if Sony did, it would still be number one all CoD fans would switch from PlayStation to Xbox. As proof of this market power, Microsoft also cites the fact that Sony has decided to increase the price of the PS5.
Even if more PlayStation consoles were definitely sold than Xbox consoles, Microsoft gives higher numbers in the report than Sony itself. Officially, the PS4 has sold 117 million units as of March 2020. The PS5 reaches about 22 million copies sold. (Source: Sony). That makes a total of 139 million consoles sold – and thus less than Sony should have achieved by 2021, according to Microsoft. One explanation here would be that Microsoft also includes hardware like PlayStation VR or older consoles like PS3 or PS Vita.