Xbox Claimed Some Market Share From PlayStation In 2022, Suggests Analysis Firm

Microsoft: Cut it out, Ampere! We’re trying to get this Activision deal to go through!

What crap analysis, they need to get in the real world these people.

Impossible, “reliable” sources insist Xbox will just roll over and die without ABK, there is no way they gained any market share without owning ABK!

It's not about console sales anymore. That is an old school mentality. Microsoft is obviously the leading gaming company when in comes to user base. Game Pass had "well over 30 million subscribers" over a year ago. They definitely have 40-50 million at this point. Game Pass is on the Series X/S, Xbox One, mobile, PC, Nvidia Streaming and Nintendo. In other words, everywhere but the Playstation. Lol. It is no longer about "how many consoles can we sell?" It's about "how many gamers can we get to give us a little bit of their money, every month?" Microsoft is the leader when it comes to gaming. And that shortage of PS5 consoles that people bring up, that doesn't exist. PS5's have been at my local Walmart and Target for a very long time now, along with Series S consoles. Sony is always quick to come up with these ridiculous articles how "the Playstation is number one". The problem is that everyone just believes what they read without even questioning if it's truth. I honestly feel that Sony is in a bit of trouble at this point. Everyone is on board with Microsoft, but Sony.

@Romans12 Game Pass is not on Switch.

@Romans12 if only everyone who wanted a PS5 last year had gone to your local Walmart. Silly them

microsoft sells product for every platform, console, pc, and cloud, instead ps plus just for console, and they give same price .
think about it. pay for benefit 3 or just 1 ?

People buy & sell consoles with nothing to play on them. We NEED big first party games now!!

Big coping on this comment section. Which is very peculiar, given this is an Xbox fan blog.

Xbox strategy is finally starting to show some results. These reports show a momentum shift, lets see if MS can keep it up, and back it up with more good games this gen.

@Ralizah they just signed a 10 year deal with Nintendo. So, no not today, but soon.

@Romans12 Most recent reports show PS Plus as having 47 million subscribers. But while they are useful figures, subscriber numbers aren't really all that accurate for player base as not every Xbox owner will be a game pass subscriber, just as not every PlayStation owner will have PS Plus. Microsoft and Sony are both doing well in their own right, there doesn't really need to be a winner and a loser.

@uptownsoul Four quotes is a bit lower than 30 million. And no, I don't have a link to that quote. That was something I read from Microsoft at least a year ago.

@Kevw2006 PS Plus is the equivalent of Xbox Live. Not the same thing. PS Premium is the equivalent to Game Pass.

@GeeEssEff Don't be a wise ass. Facts are facts. Connecticut has a lot of PS5's in local stores. I should know, I live here. Truth is, not everyone wants them. Take your Sony shades off and get a clue kid. Don't respond, I won't read.

@Romans12 please read ☹️ I wasn’t being a wise ass I swear. It’s perfectly reasonable to take your one singular experience and apply it to the whole world!

@Romans12 I never said they were the same thing. You were talking about user bases and picked an unconfirmed figure out of nowhere for game pass, I was merely pointing out that PS plus has 47 confirmed subscribers. As far as I know there haven't been any up to date figures for game pass (or gold) released for a long time so we don't really have any way of knowing what these may be at this time.

@Romans12 The ten year deal was to port CoD games to Nintendo systems, not to grant access to Xbox Game Pass.

@Romans12 But this analysis was on total spend, hardware+software+services, just the total gaming positioning with Sony just under half the total market and MS and Nintendo roughly splitting the other half. Of course all 3 combined are still well below Apple and Tencent..... We see a less than 2% shift toward MS in 2022, but with the 2023 PS supply chain improvement and mass marketing, I'd guess it's already rolled back several percent in market shift back away toward PS right now.

The bigger question might be if MS can actually fix their own supply chain for XSX hardware before Starfield launches, because right now in the US, PS5 is relatively available and XSX is still not. That'll really hurt them if they can't get hardware out to match their one huge exclusive draw.

@Romans12 Sony is by far the biggest gaming company. They make just under double what Microsoft makes from gaming. Game sales probably do it, Hogwarts Legacy for instance, over 70% of sales were on Playstation. I haven’t checked this year but last year Game Pass had about 25 million subscriber, PS+ had 45.4 million.

@Moonglow mobile gaming is number 1, in 2022 mobile gaming made $92.2 billion, consoles made $51.8 billion.

Why on earth anyone tries to compare the subscriber count for Game Pass with the subscriber count of PSN Essentials?

Come back when Sony announces PSN Premium numbers.

Hogwarts Legacy for instance, over 70% of sales were on Playstation.

Given how the PC gaming market is almost as big as the entire console market combined, there is zero chance that PlayStation accounts for 70% of sold copies of the game.

@Tharsman Already explained this but the comparison was made in response to a comment about user bases. The poster claimed that there was somewhere between 40-50 million game pass users, a figure that is nowhere near close to any official figure that has been stated. I merely pointed out that PS Plus's last confirmed figure was 47 million and both PS plus figures and game pass/gold figures won't be what the actual user bases are for either console as both will have users that are not members of either service. Obviously both are different services but the number of subscribers to either can be used to somewhat gague what the user bases for either console are.

@Kevw2006 hard disagree on your final statement. There is just no way you can use those numbers to compare.

Here is a set of numbers that can actually give you insight on the reach of Xbox (across all platforms not only consoles)

As of December 2022, Microsoft's online gaming service had approximately 120 million monthly active users, up from just under 40 million at the beginning of 2016.

Source

As of December 2022, the network had approximately 112 million monthly active users, an increase from the 111 million users in December 2021.

Source

Both of these numbers include non-paying active members, across all supported platforms, for Sony that’s mostly just PS3-PS5, unless their Steam games happen to provide PSN logins for achievement tracking or something like that (I have not played their games on PC so would not know.)

Edit 1: since the quotes used different references.

• In 2016, PSN had 60 million users.
• In 2011, Xbox Live had 100 million.
• In 2021 ps had an 11 million advantage (corrected this)
• In 2022, Xbox live active accounts surpassed PSN active accounts by about 8 million.

Edit 2: A bit of an extrapolation, since I pulled this data:

• There are definitively a LOT of Xbox Live account users on PC, their PC day one strategy is working for them, if engagement is their primary goal.
• There are a TON of PlayStation 4 only consoles on heavy active use, be it due to lack of upgrade desire or because they can’t find or afford a PS5.

@Tharsman In fairness while "PC" gaming is enormous, the market doesn't overlap with console very well where "AAA retail games" come into play. The PC market tends to have different tendencies than the typical console-style games like that. Namely, Blizzard type games, shooters, MOBAS, lower spec gaming, etc. etc. It's huge, but it doesn't line up in software sales along the same categories as much. I easily believe most of Hogwarts sales are on console in general, including eventually Switch (supposedly.)

@Kaloudz Only bureaucrats that know nothing about the industry they're talking about could think Switch is going to exist as Nintendo's current platform in 10 years. Or 2, lol.

@Kaloudz They'll really lose their stuff when they figure out Atari can't be harmed by this.

@NEStalgia last big gamer-game game I recall actually providing sales figures split by platform was Elden Ring and only for the UK:

• 32% on PlayStation
• 30% on PC
• 29% on Xbox

So I highly doubt even with the spec diversity of PCs, that PlayStation Hogwarts sales would even close to 50%. I don’t dispute it was likely the best selling platform, just not some crazy number as 70%. 40% would be believable but it would still be, imo, pushing it.

@Tharsman There are certain exceptions, games and genres that outperform average on PC. Soulsborne, FFXV, obviously a lot of shooters, MMOs, anything Bethesda, obviously, etc. Things that benefit from a lot of mods build a firm community of the hardcore on PC, or rather, of the game's particular market, a significant portion of that market overlaps with people that have high end PCs. But the PC market as a whole, is generally not buying console-type AAA games in the same proportions as console players, and PC has a number of genres that are hugely popular that don't really exist on console (or are sorely represented.) Those markets just don't always line up across all games. Especially where high system requirements exist outside of the strong "nerdcore" games like Elden Ring.

I agree about Hogwarts, though. The number seems disproportionately high for any single platform if it includes PC. And of course Switch isn't released yet. But also I think the Hogwarts audience would also align well with the PS audience, and the the extra mission being exclusive would make even some PC and XB players that also have a PS buy the PS version.

@Moonglow the figures i posted are fact. Tencent isn’t competition as such. You only have to look at how many people own Xbox or Playstation compared to how many own mobile phones. Did Tencent become big by buying Apple and Samsung? No, they became big by making appealing products. Xbox should try it.

@Tharsman Elden Ring was

41% PS
30% XBOX
29% PC

@Tharsman Interesting figures and I'd be interested to know exactly what each are classing as an 'active' user as there seems to be a large amount of non-paying users for both. For example Minecraft requires you to have an Xbox live account for certain features so is say someone playing Minecraft on PS classed as an active Xbox user? Likewise, does Sony count someone playing Destiny 2 on Xbox as an active user for them? Although I do suspect that non-paying accounts are mostly made up of family members or people that have multiple accounts for whatever reason.

@Kevw2006 the Minecraft case likely counts although the primary place for Minecraft console players seems to be the Switch, at least if we base opinions and guesses on charts, that version of Minecraft is constantly charting. Microsoft’s strategy is about engagement, so long as you are playing without their ecosystem (logged to an Xbox live account) they consider it successful engagement.

Unless they done something that flew under my radar, Destiny is not using PSN logging so that would not count. Maybe Sony will start looking at engagement at some point, after all, they going the live service path and that is all about engagement over sales.

@jordan1992

Did Tencent become big by buying Apple and Samsung? No, they became big by making appealing products. Xbox should try it.

I don't know what rock have you been living under the last 15 years, but Tencent became big BY making acquisitions. Even their biggest studio, Riot Games, was a 2011 acquisition.

What they cant acquire, they buy a large stake into (Activision and Epic Games included.) and they can do this because they own and control WeChat, that Chinese app that is basically used for everything, from texting to being the primary way of paying for stuff.

If you are trying to look for an example of bootstrapping and working your way to the top, vs using corporate power to grow into another market... Tencent is the worst example you can bring up to make your case.

@Tharsman I certainly hope they don't go down that route as the increasing requirement to register accounts for different services (EA, Epic etc) lately just to play a game has been a particular annoyance for me lately. I miss the days when things were so much simpler.

@Kevw2006 I think third party loggings are simply necessary if you want to have cross-platform play. PSN cant communicate with XBox Live to do matchmaking, so the likes of CoD need another account system across all its players to do matchmaking across every platform.

Single player games, at least on consoles, tend to treat those third party accounts as entirely optional.

I do expect, years down the line, for Xbox Live to be merged/connected/replace battle.net (does CoD use Battle.net or something else?) but as we can see, Bethesda accounts are still not in any way connected to XBox Live. It might take a full generation for that to happen, or they might just start phasing out for future games.