Throughout the year, we've been tracking multiple sales reports for Xbox Series X and S consoles, and unfortunately - the news hasn't often been very good for Microsoft. Well, a new look at the entirety of 2024 for European hardware sales paints a pretty poor picture for all three major platforms; Xbox in particular.
Outlet VGC has shared the latest 2024 gaming sales data for mainland Europe, and one segment fully focuses on hardware. In comparison to 2023, PS5 console sales were down 20%, Switch sales were down 15%, and Xbox Series X|S sales were down a whopping 48% when stacking 2024 up against the year prior.
There are some caveats to be added to this data, however. First off, these sales figures only cover the regions of Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland - the UK is excluded, as is the US of course. VGC also adds that "a lack of major releases" hurt the console sales business across the board in 2024.
Despite what looks like pretty grim reading, there are reasons to be a bit more optimistic about 2025. If GTA 6 comes out this year and remains a current-gen only title, it's basically guaranteed to shift console units, which should benefit Xbox and PlayStation. When it comes to Nintendo, they're set to deliver an entirely new console this year - so we're expecting more positive hardware news on the whole in 2025.
Do you think Xbox will have a better 2025? Talk to us about this European sales data down in the comments.
[source videogameschronicle.com]
Comments 35
All console sales are generally down, and a bit more for Xbox, whose games are available on Xbox consoles, PC, almost all in the cloud, not to mention a few multiplatform games. So it's not so bad in the end, compared to others whose games are playable almost exclusively on their console. We are comparing what is not comparable. Even dear Jez and Phil Spencer have confirmed that the Xbox console player base is stable despite the hardware decline, which shows a good engagement rate, even higher than other manufacturers.
We are past the peak for this console generation so sales were EXPECTED to be down. But they weren't expected to be down 48% that's huge. Xbox series is trending behind the Xbox One but the rate of decline is even steeper. It's not good news for console.
Sales were down 29% in USA from the article published here last month (+15% for PS5, -3% Switch). Not looking rosy for Xbox hardware when the 8 year old Switch has more stable sales…
I hope Xbox has a trick up their sleeve to ensure the console business is sustainable beyond the next generation.
xbox use to be strong in europe not anymore..
they’re still making consoles, so let’s not make it sound worse than it probably is
No adverts for the consoles. No PR. No system sellers. GP in decline, and next to no consoles in stores or online in Europe or the UK. Yet I'm sure there will be some that come here to say everything is fine, Xbox is in a good place, and you'll be safe in buying the next generation of Xbox (assuming Nadella doesn't pull the plug!). It baffles me...
It's amazing what happens when you don't advertise your systems. Both X and S are great consoles and Game Pass is an incredible deal. Yet Microsoft seems intent on not telling the world.
@Fiendish-Beaver
Totally agree, it’s a weird place to be in as an xboxer consoler.
They not even trying with our great series x console anymore.
They have some great AAA games coming this year and ended last year with COD and Indy.
The time to strike the console market Xbox wise with great PR and hopefully the great games coming is now, but they just don’t want to and unfortunately that is how it is.
Sell a console sell GP subscription.
It’s not like their GP or cloud gaming is being sold by the millions every week, I believe that is stagnant as well.
They have no where left to turn at all.
Jack of all trades and master of none and no one is that interested in big numbers that is their issue.
Most shops in UK are out of stock of the X and S. Usually their overstocked with series S
Sure look at it this way in years to come the series s and especially the series x will be really rare so might be worth a few quids for us by then 🤷👏
@OldGamer999 I would almost imagine their GP subs are shrinking and not even stagnant. As more people switch to PS they'll cancel their subscription as PS doesn't have gamepass. That and the very weak offerings lately. It used to be huge GP drops twice a month with offerings like lies of p, resident evils, remnant... i dont see any of that now. The only way they could inflate the numbers of gamepass subscribers is by changing the name xbox live to gamepass (which they did).
So 2024 compared to 2023 in Europe.
(2023)
(2024)
I would be curious to see what MS think of this, considering their gaming division turns a profit..
I wonder what the UK numbers are as UK are not included in the European numbers.
Outside of the USA I think UK on percentage is Xbox consoles largest market.
@fatpunkslim Honestly man, I respect that you can spin anything into a positive. Do you work in the Government?
@donv2135 And "only 4 games" and "no Indiana Jones" for PS5. Things change for Xbox every 2 hours lol.
@fatpunkslim Xbox is the only console that is dropping in sales 2 AND 3 years in a row. Stop trying to act like everybody is in the same sinking ship Xbox hardware sales are in right now.
@fatpunkslim xbox console userbase could not be stable if current console is down year over year every single month and is trailing behind xbox one. It definitely means less xbox console players as before. Seems like newer audience dont choose xbox as well as people who owned xbox one are also not choosing xbox series S/X.
And we have not even started next gen, but "this is xbox" and "you dont need an xbox" campaign clearly working TODAY.
Phil is a master of wording and vague statements where he means one thing but we all sigh understood something else. Indy is not coming to playstation...as part of these 4 games.
Stable xbox console base probably something else in his head.
There is even game about him by Korean studio - Lies of P(hill).
@andrewsqual but he said "Indy is not part of THESE 4 games" when they were talking hifi and others last feb haha. See he did not lie. It was not part of those 4 games...its was next 5th game technically lol.
@OldGamer999 its even funny how quickly things changed. it took them less than a year to kill console. Crazy.
We will have the strongest competition in gaming market ever in history: PC, PC handhelds, steam deck, possible desktop steam os PC, swicth 2, PS6, mobiles now have AAA games like AC or RE and xbox console should compete with all this without marketing for consoles, without exclusives, with low userbase, without clear vision for the brand. Good luck.
The last argument is GP - how many people here can bet on them not changing GP? new more expensive tier? another price hike? how many people want to lock themselves at a worse ecosystem just because of GP thats not even that cheap anymore.
Seris is my last console (which I actually like and will keep for GP while new games are still coming). I am just done with that. For them to win players back they need to revert last 8 years of changes they did. a 1000% not happening. Not sure who wants to spend $600-800 for next xbox given all that.
GTA 6 will move ps5 and ps5 PRO like hotcakes. I doubt many people will want to experince game of the decade on the worst possible way on series S.
New audience will pick up ps5 over xbox day and night.
We all know that the PS5 outsold the Series consoles in 2022, @fatpunkslim, but for the purposes of a demonstration as to how bad it has got for Xbox, let's pretend that in 2022, each console sold exactly 10 million units, then let's use the percentages provided by @MrMagic for the following two years and demonstrate just how bad Microsoft has it right now:
UNITS SOLD:
2022
2023
2024
Thus in total, using 10 million units sold for each company in 2022, we can see that each company sold the following total number of consoles in 2023 and 2024 combined.
So using the 10 million marker we can see a whopping difference in the number of Xboxes sold as opposed to the PS5, with the PS5 having sold 37.34 million more consoles than the Xbox in those two years. To be clear, using my figures, that would mean that the Sony had sold a whopping 74.98% more consoles than Microsoft.
However, this does not truly demonstrate how dire it is for Xbox, because we know that the PS5 sold considerably more than the Xbox in 2022. It was not a level playing field in 2022, which means that the difference between the PS5 and the Series consoles sold is also far greater. Truth be told, Microsoft would probably happily take a difference of a mere 37 million units, when in fact that percentage difference is more likely far, far greater than just 74.98%.
The situation is dire, no matter how you paint it. Xbox will continue, and have great success, as a publisher, but as a console maker..? That's a whole other story...
I honestly expect the decline to be even steeper this year, as the real consequences of becoming multi platform will start to show, another metric I’m expecting to decline heavily is consumer spending on consoles, meaning how much people spend on Xbox in games, MTX and subscriptions, as existing audiences will begin flock the platform and the ones who remain won’t spend a cent (my case until I rebuild my library someplace else), we probably won’t know as they’ll mask it with consumer spending on competing platforms as the ports release.
As to new audiences they’ll see the brand is already so tarnished and despised that they won’t even consider it as an option over a PS5 or even Switch 2, so once again I can’t see a path where Xbox ain’t dead.
Let's face it, this console generation sort of sucked. I love my Series X and I tolerate my PS5 for a (very small) handful of exclusives, but everyone utterly failed to demonstrate what made this 'next' generation so much better than the last, and COVID certainly didn't help.
Will it improve in the coming years? Probably not, at least not in terms of dedicated hardware. The whole concept of a gaming box is so rooted in the 90's and earlier that its almost absurd. We don't use DVD players, CD players, etc. anymore, so why are we using gaming consoles? I ask this question myself almost constantly, even though I have all of them - and play about 30% of my games via cloud these days via subscription. Do I care about "ownership?" Not really. I care about playing what I want to play, where and when I want to play it. And I'm not in grammar school anymore so honestly, who cares which stupid plastic box is "better?"
@donv2135 But are they? Considering they seem to be out of stock everywhere?
i understand you’re frustrated but if you going to waste your time complaining and doom and glooming, i don’t care, i’m just gonna play games, go ahead and keep giving the ponies more reasons to make fun of us
@donv2135 you clearly care mate
@IOI I agree. COD did not do anything for GP and console sales in November. Thats just insane - thats one of the biggest games ever and was one of the biggest release on a year. Pretty sure user of next xbox (if its a traditional console) will take it primarily for GP and with less and less 3rd prty support, xbox niche will be for GP only gamers mostly. That will lead to GP subs going down and then expect more changes to GP. Seems like the multiplatform strategy basically does not really need GP. I wouldnt be surprised another price hike or something more drastic.
Everyone is so busy with PS but they are missing that switch 2 is a big competitor to series S audience as it pretty much will be capable of all these games AND nintendo exclusives AND portability.
and seris X or next xbox will lose to PS5-6 day and night
Fiendish-Beaver wrote:
I have absolutely no confidence that's the case. Microsoft themselves aren't confident that's the case.
From the FTC trial, we saw internal emails from Microsoft questioning the acquisition strategy because if game pass doesn't succeed, "the winds will change and we have a bloodbath a few years down the road" (alluding to closing studios and mass layoffs).
@fatpunkslim
Console sales were notably down all over last year. Not a good year for the gaming industry.
@MrMagic PS5 being down only 20% without a major price cut is actually impressive. Xbox really needs to pull their socks up and work harder. Nintendo has a great hold for a now ancient console.
Not surprised, I don't see any marketing from Xbox at all. I do see Nintendo and PlayStation stuff regularly though.
Also, there's so little exclusive titles on Xbox X|S and not really any new ones besides Halo Infinite & Indy. A Gears remaster trilogy would be nice, but this is probably being prepped for PC/PlayStation release instead.
Not hard to see why, Microsoft spent the first few years of the generation shipping games that were either not particularly well received or were outright mocked. Then when they start delivering titles which people are excited about (indy, Doom, Fable) they make sure everyone knows that they don't need an Xbox - including a campaign at Christmas seemingly to discourage buying a console - but just in case they make sure everyone thinks that all their games will be on playstation as well.
I'll get the next Xbox, partly due to a library that of games that goes back to the OG Xbox, but I hope they can come up with a compelling reason for everyone else to get one too.
@Jenkinss a lot of things changed the moment deal was closed.
Of course they will succeed and earn record revenues with franchises like COD and WoW and by shipping big games not to 30M series sold but also 70M PS5 and millions of switch 2 down the road.
They will lose xbox console and GP eventually abd will be left without a platform unless some miracle happens like accelerated interest to cloud. They will also play by rules of Valve, sony and nintendo
Not surprising still waiting for a reason to own a series x all the games I want to play still work on Xbox One not that I turn it on much any more because of the egregious amount of adverts on the dashboard feels like Microsoft have given up and they're trying to rinse the most they can out their loyal fan base
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