Xbox hasn't officially revealed console sales figures for years at this point - since early on in the Xbox One generation. During that time, Xbox sales were clearly behind the likes of PlayStation 4 so that surely played a part in Microsoft being sheepish over hardware figures back then, however these days it's not the only reason.
Phil Spencer has been clear that Xbox's success isn't just about console unit sales anymore, and Xbox CFO Tim Stuart talked about this a little more at a recent summit. Stuart says that the focus for a while now has been on "content and services", not just hardware sales (thanks, Gamespot).
"At first it was like, 'What are you doing?' 'You're the Xbox business and you're not giving us console [sales numbers], that makes no sense.' But it was really the first point of us saying, no, no, it's about content and services."
Also speaking at the summit in relation to Microsoft increasing its share in the market, Stuart discussed how the team measures success now. Again, it's all about using content and services to grow Xbox's piece of the gaming pie (thanks, TechRaptor).
"Success for us is we can keep growing that content and services revenue double-digits. [...] If we can grow faster than the market is growing, we are taking share in the gaming market.
And that's where we want to be. It's a 250 billion dollar market. We are not 250 billion dollars."
Regardless of whether Microsoft announces its figures publicly nowadays, we often get various sales updates via other sources. Recent court docs regarding Activision Blizzard revealed lots of facts & figures about the Xbox business, and outlets like GamesIndustry.biz often share numbers surrounding Xbox hardware and software sales on the regular.
Would you like Xbox to talk about its hardware sales anyway? Tell us your thoughts down below.
[source techraptor.net, via gamespot.com]
Comments 45
Considering Xbox consoles have over 50 percent of game pass subscribers against all other billions of devices out there.
I would want to be selling Xbox consoles as well as focusing on other devices.
They need to do both with some dam advertising and some dam, Testicular Fortitude.
Translation: Only reveal facts and figures when they show a positive outlook.
If console sales were impressive they'd brag about it, same with Game Pass subscriber numbers.
Embarrassing corperate word salad response. We all know why they dont release sales figures. I read the other day the ratio of ps5 to xbox was 7:1 or something. Embarrassing
@Grumblevolcano well obviously. It is what any company tries to do - hide the bad stuff.
@hbkay Yet, many financial figures are starting to show that Xbox is doing pretty well when compared to Sony. The gaming industry really isn't just "who can sell the most consoles".
They're attempting to hide lower Xbox sales despite being able to very roughly tell what they are through number of multiplats sold per game.
Which is strange when everyone already knows Xbox sells the least. Has always been the underdog except when Sony dropped with ball with the PS3 initial release.
People keep telling me I'm crazy. But if Microsoft gets their way and Gamepass/cloud is on everything, they're gonna drop out of the console business a gen or two after.
Why deal with R&D of console hardware when they can set up Azure farms with off the shelf components and just have everyone stream?
Xbox is definitely in a different position from Nintendo and Sony so the tradition sales comparison doesn't work very well. That won't stop people from relying solely on that reporting. A big part of why they went this direction was the distance they were behind.
It speaks to the quality of game pass when I think about if I didn't own an xbox I would probably still subscribe to game pass to play on pc/ROG ally. I own a ps5 and switch and I would never dream of subscribing to their services rivaling GP.
Xbox won't be leaving the console space anytime soon however. It is just not the end all be all focus of their gaming platform like consoles are for nintendo/sony. People don't realize how much of their revenue is from digital sales of 3rd party games on xbox consoles.
@hbkay in France yes, not in America. But yes in certain European areas PS is way way ahead. PS is very strong in the EU. In America Sony is ahead but not by anything that isn’t competitive.
@BacklogBrad thank you, well said and i agree with every word you said. I am trying to explain that to some on here and other sites. Xbox didn’t fight in court around the world to get ABK and then teach all those people how to use Xbox tools to say in a few years we are killing the brand. Now in 10 years or more if Xbox isn’t moving the needle for the company.. sure i could see it. But for god’s sake people we don’t even have COD on GP yet and people are pulling the plug.
Yea everyone knows the truth, it's because Xbox sales have been in the toilet compared to Sony and Nintendo. They only want to reveal numbers that make them look good and everyone knows it.
@LX_FENIX like every company. Sony is secretive about the numbers that don't make them look as great as everyone thinks.
Console sales do not matter in 2023, that's why. Sony still doesn't get it.
@LX_FENIX Educate yourself. It's 2023. Console sales are not the priority, subscriptions are. And this is why Microsoft is a trillion dollar company and Sony is not. Bye.
@hbkay You have been misinformed. Microsoft is worth trillions, Sony is not. Console sales do not matter, subscriptions do. 7:1 is not even in the same stratosphere as the truth. It's not even 2:1. Educate yourself.
If Xbox were number 1 in industry they sing it from rooftops!! If you sell more console you sell more games, you sell more dlc, you get more subs!! Most Game Pass subscribers is on Xbox. Sell more Xbox, get more subscribers. It not rocket science!!
@Lightning720 will you still be saying that when xbox is just an app on ps6??
@InterceptorAlpha not till streaming is actually going to work properly
There is one reason why Microsoft don't reveal Xbox sales. It's because they're extremely low. Phil just trying to play a good game with bad cards, but he always failed. This time is no exception.
@eire-shabba Call.me part of the problem, but since I have Gamepass already, I pretty much stream everyday to work without issues. Most issues I've seen are due to cruddy internet on the end user's party. Not to say there aren't others, but that's the lion's share.
Yeah the internet is always the issue I have my Xbox wired to 500mb fiber broadband and I can see a big drop in picture and frame rate quality but that's on a tv I'm sure it's less noticeable streaming on a tablet or phone
I mean they could still be all about content and services AND say console sales?! There’s nothing that stopping them.
@Deljo I like my PS5 and I like my Xbox games so if Xbox is just an app on PS6 (which I will probably also like), I don't think I'll care. At least I wouldn't need to pay for both consoles anymore.
But seriously, the thing that matters to businesses is money. If Microsoft decides that the way to bring in the most money is by stopping doing consoles, then so what? I struggle to see why people think consoles are the only thing that matters. Money matters, and Xbox is doing pretty well there, even with the lower consoles sales.
its going to be 100+ years before the billions of people they want to reach has internet that can stream games at a good quality(still won't be as good as local hardware). by that time folks will want consoles for their space ships.
consoles are the only way to go for now and the future.
Is MS going to continue making consoles given their focus is on subscriptions?
@Romans12 Console sales may not be Microsoft's priority at the moment but you cannot say that they don't matter. Do you honestly think that is the Series S|X sales were less than say 5 million throughout it's lifetime we would see another Xbox console? I've said this many times but you don't spend millions researching, developing and marketing a product and then simply not care if no one buys it.
@kevw2006 do you think MS is laying the ground work to get out of the console market?
@Romans12 my concern is that if Sony “gets it” and MS “gets it” will anyone even create cutting edge consoles anymore? We know Nintendo is going to be focused on a different market so it seems like the competition between Sony and MS helps home consoles and without that competition things might start to lag behind? Is everything headed to a cloud sub model or will it be PC vs Nintendo?
It’s because it’s bad and they don’t want to scare off investors 😂
@libersolis I'm still leaning towards no on that, but only just. Comments like them wanting game pass to be on Sony and Nintendo consoles suggest that they could be looking into pulling out of the console market, however I fully expect there to be a next gen Xbox console. Past that I'm not so sure, although I'm not so sure there will necessarily be a PS7 as a traditional console as we know them either.
Right, I think a lot of it depends on the ability to deliver native hardware like experiences via cloud gaming.
Did anyone ever dabble with Stadia? What was the experience there like?
@Romans12 educate yourself indeed. Gamepass has roughly 25-29 million subscribers (august 23 for reference).
Playstation plus (across various levels) had 47.4 million subscribers (march 23 for reference).
On top of that they are massively outselling its biggest competitior in hardware.
I would say Sony gets it very well.
We all need both of these companies to do well as competition breeds innovation, and right now MS are struggling on all fronts.
@libersolis ive seen some folks who enjoyed stadia and say it worked well. For me, i struggle with games that are streamed (on all platforms). Its just not as responsive and image quality cant compare.
@Romans12 Okay but let's not pretend that Microsoft are a trillion dollar company because of their efforts in gaming. They are a trillion dollar company because they hold virtual monopolies in other lucrative areas. It's only because they are a trillion dollar company that they can operate the way they do in gaming.
@Lightning720 It's definitely about money but not ours so why should we care? I'm like you and own several systems but I enjoy that each one brings something different and don't look forward to the future were we all own the gamebox 3000 with apps for each publisher...
We better hope that Satya Nadella stay CEO for another couple of decades and doesn't leave in the next couple years. Cause who ever come after him, may not be kind to Xbox and it years of failures.
Translation: If were selling more we would open tell you.
Let's not kid ourselves that is the exact reason they haven't openly given numbers.
MS is gonna move away from consoles sooner rather than later. Just facts at this point and why shouldn't they ?
Been seeing this for a while and I hate it.
hbkay wrote:
And the true total ratio is 1.8:1. PS5 sales are 45.37m. Series S|X sales are 24.33m. Xbox has more premium subscribers than Sony, though.
@Weebleman If you use the number of total subscribers to all the PS tiers, then you must add Gold/Core subscribers on top of the Game Pass figure you used in your very poor comparison. Besides, the 25 millions of Game Pass subscribers figure you used is from January 2022. In August 2023, we learnt that there were over 30 million subscribers to Game Pass, not including Gold/Core. That was before Starfield launched, that set a new record on Game Pass.
@Lightning720 It's because they still have the SNES/Mega Drive mindset and they think that only console numbers matter. They also want Xbox to disappear using those metrics, not realising how absurd that is because Microsoft makes PCs, laptops, tablets, smartphones and Windows. Xbox consoles are just PCs optimised for gaming running Windows that gives them extra money through the store and Game Pass. They won't stop making Xbox consoles as long as there is a relevant console market to jump in.
@Banjo- as of 9 November PS5 has sold 46.6 million units. Xbox Series console sold 21.8 million. 75% of Series sales are Series S. i know PS+ has about 20 million more subs than all types of Game Pass.
@Pimpernel Wrong. You are using combined PS Plus numbers but you're not including Gold/Game Pass Core subscribers. Xbox has more premium subscribers than Sony. Besides, PS5 sales are 45.37m. Series S|X sales are 24.33m. Ratio so far is 1.8:1. Last generation, the ratio was 2.02:1. All this before ABK.
@Banjo- your numbers be a little off or behind. Playstation 5 currently sold 46.6 million unit. The game Pass figure include every version of Xbox sub, not just Game Pass Ultimate.
Makes sense, console sales aren't their focus, there's a lot more money in selling games and services.
Removed - flaming/arguing; user is banned
Removed - flaming/arguing; user is banned
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