How Well Are Xbox Games Selling On PlayStation? Here's What The Data Says

Let’s see how Indy and FH5 do on PS5, but they won’t sell as many as some think.

Now DOOM in May Day one will sell well on PS5, as it has been there before and has a very good following as a franchise on PlayStation.

Kinda would have thought ages of mythology would be higher as there's not many games like em since c&c died 😥

I genuinely think FH5 will clear all those day one on PS5.

Those Hi-Fi Rush sales are just depressing man.

Puts it into perspective when you see Reddit forums that say stuff like "why even bother porting to Xbox, they won't buy it they just wait for game pass anyway".

Turns out that just because there's a massive install base doesn't guarantee massive sales either. Just got to make enough for the port to be cost effective.

I should play Grounded again, such an amazing game.

Any reason this doesn’t include Xbox sales? Would make the comparison more interesting…since as presented just assumes no one on Xbox buys the games and just plays via gamepass.

Probably the similar issue that late switch ports have. Gamers move on if they have to wait too long. Sony isn’t hyping these games up either (as multiplats) so either people don’t care or they “moved on”. The amount of single system owners that will wait to buy a game on their preferred system is low. Also sometimes people don’t want to double dip. I stopped buying most games day one because I got tired of them coming out on switch a year later which is my preferred console. I haven’t bought the old yakuza games because I own most of them twice already on sony systems but spent most of my time playing them via gamepass on xbox.

these are very bad sales...

@Bigmanfan honestly I won’t play this one at all even if it was on ps plus 😂 it just looks very average imo.

Isn't it kinda a shock to see a that is now seven years old sell nearly 2 million copies as a new release on PlayStation after like a year? Rare should really feel proud of themselves there. I really think the multiplatform strategy could hugely benefit sea of thieves and Forza Horizon 5 and put those games closer to Minecraft and Fornite status.

If I were Microsoft I'd look at this data and say the only games worth porting are online live service multiplayer and the big ones that benefit from Playstation ports. They did say "experiment" with all four to start with and the results of said experiment are very clear. The problem is that Microsoft insists on running these experiments out in the public and that's kinda opened the flood gates.

Looking forward it's interesting how the issue is perceived. Activision Blizzard games and Bethesda games are now Xbox first party games after the past 3 years (not even that long). And it's treated as Xbox giving up an exclusive when one of those traditionally third party games (now first party) have a multiplatform release. Part of it is on Xbox and the way they originally marketed the acquisition with Bethesda. Sony made it clear that they weren't making Destiny or any future Bungie games exclusive. Sony also gets a pass for MLB the Show because the license holder wanted it to be exclusive and Microsoft doesn't with Indiana Jones because... idk. Everyone knows they renegotiated for any amount of exclusivity with Disney. At least all the insiders and game news sites do because they also did articles about that.

It really seems like more than Xbox not being able to bottle the demon, the social side of the industry won't let them. I mean before the Nintendo direct everyone was posting about how many Xbox exclusives would be there... and there wasn't a single Xbox exclusive. There was however a Playstation exclusive, and no one really cares. The general trajectory is less exclusives and I think the industry, gamers, and publishers are benefiting from that. What really seems to be mucking it up and causing confusion is how it's being handled by the companies involved and more than that, how it's being covered. Xbox really just once again has their own marketing to blame for the can of worms. Honestly, I'd say being candid with their fans as well because it doesn't really work when you're still finalizing plans and haven't decided on a clear path for execution. It was the same when Xbox first started porting to PC and Switch: messy. Well same day PC was pretty clear. Switch ports were not and Microsoft even has contradicting statements in the wind surrounding them. And I don't think they were lying or anything. I think they like any business saw changing market trends and analytics and they changed internally and so on. The problem is that publicly they aren't displaying a strong front.

I remember a day when all gamers cared about was what games where coming out and the sales and finances where none of our business and we didn't care either!
It was much better back then!

@Ricky-Spanish The way some folks rabidly discuss this stuff you would think they had invested millions and their fortunes are on the line.

Me, I play games and come here to discuss the merits or not of said games. Its a rare treat for me these day when I actually get to do that.

Good stuff, but I agree, I think FH5 is gunna rock on PS.

@RiverGenie Exactly I'm sick of these stories they may get traffic like people clicking and commenting but I just want to hear about games! The finances of a multi billion dollar company that Microsoft is are nothing to do with me I don't gain a thing if they do well or bad and they don't care about us consumers either they just care how much money they can take from each of us!!

Hi Fi Rush console sales confirm Microsoft made the right decision.

I wasn't super excited to see Xbox go this way, but it means more money for Xbox AND more money for PS to throw at studios .. it's a win

@Ricky-Spanish It seems to be down to Game Pass, yet in the 90's and 00's plenty of gamers probably rented games. Then let's not forget one of the biggest markets for the last 30+ years, which is the 2nd hand market.

It just does not feel right. I would argue that it even would be OK for Sony to port some older games as it wont hurt them in any meaningful way.
For xbox that had weakest position for more than 10years that means console share shrinking dramatically.

You have to be fearless to invest $600-800 in their next console (if its a traditional SX-like) to then worry about which games are skipping the xbox and that xbox own games look better on ps6.
Unless you are purely a GP player but then over years you dont own a single game and on top of that you are dependent on price hikes and any changes to the service.

Maybe this pc/xbox hybrid can surprise us though

@OldGamer999 both indy and fh5 are top pre-orders already on ps5

@Millionski
Yes I have seen that, but that’s on preorders and depends what the competition is at the time.
Not saying they won’t do well, just not high ish millions.
Also they being sold at the right time, when Sony only manage one AAA game a year.

I think it needs to be remembered that each of these games was available on the Game Pass, sometimes for several years. And whilst it is a popular sport for the PlayStation gamers to knock Xbox, many people own both a PlayStation [b]and]/b] an Xbox, so many people who predominantly game on a PlayStation will have already played these games and not felt the need to double dip. Plus, with some of these games being particularly old, people lose interest because they want to play new releases, not old ports...

@Fiendish-Beaver
Yep exactly why they will do ok ish.
But it won’t be some amazing revolution for Xbox studios.
They should have promoted Xbox consoles along with console game pass and kept exclusives apart from a couple of choice games like COD.
If they had done this from day one and performed with games like they are now series consoles would be tracking above Xbox one, easy.

@OldGamer999 FH5 is guaranteed to sell a lot. Its literally one of the few games even die hard sony fans wanted on Ps. There is also no competition in the arcade race space.

Indy I think will sell good too because there are not many AAA adventure games these days

@Fiendish-Beaver on the contrary - very few people own multiple consoles. Thats the whole problem of xbox. Majority People are already on PS or N so they wont buy another box just to play bunch of exclusives. Maybe nintendo as a secondary console but not an xbox. And now basically there are no more exclusives on xbox so they are losing the audience of people who were buying multiple consoles for this sole reason.

First they lost the PC audience as PC basically a more powerful xbox. Now they lost PS audience who kept xbox as a secondary xbox for Forza Horizon only for example.
And now series s owners can look at switch 2 that will run same games + Nintendo exclusives.

I disagree, @Millionski. I'm not suggesting the majority do, but if you read these forums often enough, you will see a significant number of people do own both. I would wager that probably the majority of S owners also own a PlayStation, and have the S as a Game Pass console, and I believe that I read somewhere that the S has sold more than the X..

I do agree with you when it comes to how Microsoft completely lost the console race, @Millionski. They made the mistake of thinking that putting their games on the PC wouldn't harm their console business, and then of course, there was the whole Xbox One launch debacle. And now, they have given up on exclusivity, which is the final nail in the coffin.

Even though there will still be some games that will have a short period of exclusivity (for now!), I think that Microsoft have loudly, and clearly, sent the message that all games will be going to the PlayStation. I think that the bosses at Microsoft underestimate the patience of gamers, and thus even if it means waiting 6-12 months for a game to arrive on the PlayStation, I think those gamers will wait rather than see the need to owning two different 'high-end' consoles...

@OldGamer999 thats how everyone including Spencer wanted it back in the day.
They literally bought Bethesda for exclusives. I even kept Phil’s quote saved lol.

You have exclusives AND GP. The combination of both is how basically netflix works.

Now its basically no exclusives and GP is flat at best. If they go PC way next gen, GP will sink

Damn we traded COD on GP for

@Fiendish-Beaver thats a classic survival bias. Majority of people dont sit on forums at all. So your experience was based on like 5% of total gamers that are active/hardcore/semi-hardcore players.
Most people dont follow news and dont sit on forums and for sure not handing over extra $500 to play bunch of exclusives (in case of xbox-ps at least)
Nintendo is little different and good secondary handheld console

@Fiendish-Beaver I think ABK deal essentially ended them. Thats when we started having radical changes in the strategy.

And what we xboxers got from this deal? Cod on GP is nice but not worth terminating console business over it lol.
We dont even have many abk games on GP still…

Bethesda deal was way better for xbox. Actual games and exclusives.

@Millionski
They could and should have stuck to their guns.
But there will be a cost to importing FH5 and Indy to PS5 and Pro. So let’s how many they sell as they will be looking for a return on investment, else what is the point of putting those games on another console, other than to make money.

@OldGamer999 if they did something niche like pentiment, sure they will with forza and other games. There is no hope that they stop at this point.
Even something like hellblade 2 could be ported

I don't think the sales are that bad for OLD games that can be played basically everywhere else (except Playstation/Switch). Steam has no doubt cheaper prices and had numerous sales too to sell 'more' games over the years these have been available.

This is predominantly Sales from gamers who otherwise would not have bought these games and certainly wouldn't buy an 'Xbox' to play. In other words - money they otherwise wouldn't have received for 'their' (I know Hi-Fi Rush isn't theirs anymore) IP's - those games made 'additional' money they otherwise would not have got.

I'm sure that 'Some' Playstation gamers would be excited to play some Xbox games, but if they were really desperate to play, they'd likely have played on one of the many devices (thanks to Game Pass Cloud and of course, the multiple PC types from handheld PC/Steamdecks, tablets, laptops to Desktops) that these games are playable on too.

Xbox gamers are looking forward to or playing new releases like Avowed, South of Midnight, Doom, Fable, Gears: E-Day, Perfect Dark etc. I can see MS maybe selling Starfield or Hellblade 2 the 'month/quarter' Xbox get Fable or State of Decay 3 for example - games that aren't really selling on their own console anymore, been on sale so can get 'revenue' from the only gamers they can target, Playstation/Switch - because the games are available EVERYWHERE else. Its the ONLY gamers they can target because for everyone else, they have the option to play...

@BAMozzy Fable rumoured to be day 1 on PS hence the delay.
In 2-3 years all new games will be day 1
On PS without exceptions and on switch 2 where technically possible.
The only reason there are still exclusives on xbox like avowed is that many studios initially worked with only PC/xbox in mind and it takes time for said studios to develop for other platforms. But no doubt all newer projects will be developed as multiplat

@Millionski yeah people keep forgetting that future releases will have the PS version developed alongside the Xbox version going forward.

From 26 is when I think we will see all MS day1 elsewhere. I feel this year may be a little too soon for a couple of games

@Rog-X By shadow dropping a brand new IP with no marketing whatsoever so it ended up being lost in the sea of new games no matter how great it is? Oh yeah, brilliant decision by Microsoft.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner over time we will see more and more relases on Ps/N day 1.
i think starting next gen they will announce it officially like all games will be multiplat full stop.

No one will buy next xbox. If they go pc way - there are a lot of options today. If you want console - you are better off with PS or switch.

GP is really good value and only argument for xbox…for now. It takes literally 1 price hike and closing all conversion loopholes so people will re-consider it.

I am past the point where its bad news. Will just get either PC or PS6 next gen + switch 2 this year.
Will give a chance to xbox-pc hybrid but have a lot of doubts. I wont give any chance a traditional Series X like console as will be doomed on release and not even because of (lack of) exclusives but because Ms does not want to market and sells consoles anymore

@Millionski I've said for years game pass is an overpriced, over hyped joke.

Unless....enjoy 8 bit quality games on level of game boy color. Vast majority of game pass catalog is just that. Jumping over lava pits and side scrolling.

I can bring out my NES from 1987 and play same games. Won't cost me $30 a month, either.

I totally understand what you are getting at, @Millionski, but the below is worth looking at:

https://www.vgchartz.com/article/455977/uk-report-71-of-ps5-users-say-it-is-their-main-console-49-for-switch-and-48-for-xbox-series-x/

Only 35% of S gamers say it is their main console. IGN did an article that says that the S accounts for 75% of Xbox sales this generation. That would mean that of the thirty million consoles sold, that the S accounts for 22.5 million of them. Of that 22.5 million only around 8 million of them predominantly use the S. Plus, of the 7.5 million Series X's sold, only half of the people that have one use it as their primary console. So, the very rough maths would have you believe that around 12 million have an Xbox as the primary console, and therefore 18 million of people that own an Xbox use either the PlayStation or the Switch as their primary console. Now it is entirely possible that most people double dip with an Xbox and a Switch, but if you look at the percentage that have the PS5 as their primary console (71%) it would be fair to assume that a high percentage of people that have a Series as their secondary console, also game on the PlayStation, which they use as their primary console.

I cannot find anything more concrete on the subject, but my first take is that it is shocking how few of the Xboxes sold this generation were sold as primary gaming devices, but also how, when you look at the PlayStation, that trend is totally reversed. Indeed, there is another report that states that just under 20% of PlayStation gamers have an Xbox as their secondary console. So, if the PS5 has sold around 70 million units, that means that around 14 million of them have an Xbox as their secondary console. That is not far short of half of all Xbox consoles sold:

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/more-than-80-of-ps5-owners-dont-have-an-xbox-series-x-s-sie-data-reveals.1658289/

This is why I do not believe that there will be another Xbox console after the Prime, because, quite simply, people will either plump for a PC, or more likely for the PS6, PS7 and beyond, and the need for future Xboxes will be so low as to not be worth the effort of developing them...

@GuyinPA75 I don’t get that argument, or where $30 a month came from.

I pay about £90 a year and in 2025 that will allow me to play Avowed, South of Midnight, Doom the Dark Ages, Tony Hawks 3+4, Towerborne, Ninja Gaiden 4, Outer Worlds 2 and COD 2025 if I want. And thats only from Microsoft as a publisher. And that includes online which you need to pay for on PS5 or Xbox anyway (annoyingly but still). Can’t play those games on my Nes.

More on topic; they are 100% releasing everything multi-platform going forward. Phil has said it a couple of times now; we are just in that weird time-lag year where Avowed and South of Midnight hit Xbox first. Phil even said they wanted to add the PS5 logo to games during the summer showcase last year but it was too late.

My opinion is that since everyone else has exclusives; ABK and Zenimax should be multiplatform but XGS should be exclusive. Since they would be a drop in the ocean next to COD etc. But that idea is long gone.

@K1LLEGAL $30 was a bump (not much of one, really) I inserted. But do not doubt, even for a min, that by end of year, beginning 2026, $30 will not be farfetched. It will be going up. Again. I bet soon. The game pass business model is incredibly flawed and not sustainable.

Which is why I said majority of games are on level of 8 bit game boy color. Microsoft can't afford supplement many third party developers for legit next gen games to game pass. So majority of catalog are games that look like from 1987. Don't get me wrong. If games like Enter the Gungeon is something that makes person think is awesome game. Go for it.

Not forget, if game pass is soooooo great and wonderful for developers. Why isn't GTA 6 coming to game pass day one?

The online thing was better with Xbox Live. I could pick up a deal and discount 12 month card for $60. Game pass has yet to offer anything like 12 month card discount for like even $180.

I have Gamefly, $25 a month for two games out at a time. I can be playing GTA 6 pretty much day one with that (basically same price as Ultimate), keep it for a discount, if choose to. Also can rent 4k movies, keep if want. Gamefly, every quarter, sends $5 coupon can use on games/movies as well. Much better experience and value in my eyes.

@Fiendish-Beaver I think Prime will be a pc-xbox hybrid already. They clearly dont want to sell consoles TODAY which we see with series gen and aggressive marketing against a console.

Like after “everything is an xbox” suddenly Prime will be best way to play xbox? Maybe exclusives come back? we all know thats not happening 99%.

I just dont see how they can launch traditional SX like console after such dramatic change in strategy, marketing and brand damage they received. You were telling us half gen that you dont need a console but now you want us to buy one?

Launching new console is a lot of marketing effort and positioning. I dont see how it can fit to their narrative about games first and playing on any device.

If they launch it, damn you have to be fearless to invest $600-800 for a console that is guaranteed to have issues with 3rd party support and likely MS support too (like we see more work done for ps5 ports lol). All these conversations and doubts and worries we are having today will literally gonna be x10.

I actually changed my mind. I think Prime will be PC-based. I even think they we are OK with GP getting punched hard because of that (because mostly GP tied to console now, GP core exists only on console too) and downsizes to first-party and partners service (which I personally dont think is bad) and fully becomes secondary to outright game sales on all platforms. Everything launches as mutliplat everywhere day 1 including switch where technically possible

@K1LLEGAL you pay 90 for a year…for now. While Ms allowing conversions and Ms rewards. Both being nerfed as we speak. Conversation was nerfed twice already.
Now the price hike is inevitable until next gen.
So now ask yourself do you want to pay $23-25USD per month for this service? Now its a way different topic right?

I also stacked my GP till 2027. I even bought second SX (for another floor) because well I will save a lot on games.

But its very high possibility we wont be able to extract so much value going forward. And as time goes by, we dont own anything. You un-sub and left with nothing. When 1 year of GP will be equivalent of 4 games, that starts to be questionable as maybe you dont actually want all these GP games, or maybe you can just buy what you want and call it a day.

I posted this on another topic, @Millionski, in response to someone else, but it is very relevant to what you said above.

In 2024, I made use of the EA sub conversion to GPU. It seemed like a good idea at the time because 2023 was a cracking year for GP (albeit, I do tend to buy the games I play).

Truthfully, I have no idea why I did it now as I so rarely use the service other than to play Gears 5 online with my mate (for which I need at least Core). I do have a gaming PC too (which I only really use for here and Amazon! 🤪), but having Ultimate makes more sense when you factor that in.

If, and it's a big if, Microsoft do take the Prime into PC territory and include Steam, then you have to wonder whether Microsoft will continue charging for online. I say this because first off, you can game more cheaply on Steam than you can on the Xbox, but also you can play online for free on a PC. I do wonder how Microsoft expect Xbox, and particularly Game Pass, to survive if they include Steam as so many people believe they will. I mean, for starters, even Game Pass on the PC is cheaper probably because Microsoft don't add in the online fees (being as it is actually free!).

The one thing I cannot work out is how Microsoft are going to deal with people that have Game Pass stacked, if they pull the plug on the Service. It's a real issue because people have paid for it, but if the Service cannot survive in conjunction with Steam, then how are they going to compensate people? Or are they just going to leave the Service up and running, but without any new content, and allow people to see out their stacked subscriptions? But surely that is a breach of trust in itself because people sign up not just because of what is on the Service, but what is up and coming too.

I get the feeling that Microsoft are kind of stuck right now. Stuck with a Service that is offering less than in used to, likely with a falling number of subscribers, and thus inbound revenue is falling too, but with no way of just stopping it because people are buying the Service months and years in advance. How do Microsoft stop something like that? It's a real conundrum...

@Fiendish-Beaver I am not worried about stacked GP. No one will pull the plug but the service could be transferred into “first party and partners” only.
This is evidenced by the fact that, people are still subscribed to GP console. Yes that one that is now gone and replaced with useless standard.

But such tiers will be moved into legacy category not available for general audience.

What I am more interested is to see if they have the guts to go full PC away. The thing is roughly 70-80% of GPU users are console players. Converting to PC means free online = -10M of core users. Then GP revenues will be down. GPU is $20 vs PC GP is only $12 for the same functionality except cloud that no one uses anyways. I was surprised but seemingly PC gP even includes EA play.

Basically it means by mid next gen, they will have at best 20M subs and on average people paying less for the sub due to cheaper PC GP tier. Plus some will unsub at all due to lucrative steam sales, prices and piracy.

We discussed it with Old gamer before and we believe that GP in current state and desire to keep it will be the only point of xbox Prime being a regular SX-like console. Basically if they want to milk their 30m-ish GP console players.

However, due to all their efforts and radical shifts in the strategy I tend to believe they actually can say “whatever, we will make money off other platforms” and just still go PC way full steam (pun intended) ahead.

I feel like senior mgmt at MS just sick and tired of the consoles and they want out. PC with xbox OS/layer seems like a logical move and a way out. Maybe it will be licenzed xboes or their own, or maybe they release a windows 11 patch with xbox functionality for everyrone - doesnt really maytter. Bottom line - they are out of traditional consoles.

@Fiendish-Beaver I think GP is at peak now and recommend everyone to snatch the conversion while possible and do the stacking.

Man they gonna milk the GP users hard if Prime is a traditional console. Forget stacking and prepare for price hikes.

@Fiendish-Beaver another question is lets say Prime is a traditional console like SX, powerul enought with AI upscalijf and stuff. Why average person (not a loyal fan) will buy it over ps6? Literally a gamble move with $600-800 hard earned cash as I already see on a day this console is revealed internet will be doscussing how it flops x10 of how we disccuss now lol.

It will be 100% even worse than series gen.
Jokes aside, series gen sold enough to keep 3rd party, still has exclusives and offers cheaper series s version.

Next gen where you have pricey box with no features, exclusives and marketing…will it even sell 20M? Not sure

@IOI It wasn't shadow dropped on the PlayStation though was it, it had huge publicity by that time and it Flopped. So yes a very good decision by Microsoft and I didn't notice Sony queuing up to buy them either.

@Rog-X Huge publicity? Lmao, all it had was a trailer a month before launch and that’s it, it wasn’t even promoted on the PS Store or anything.
By the way, don’t you remember how Phil sold the idea of (only) porting 4 games and Hi-Fi being one of them because they wanted to nurture the IP? What an outrageous lie as he closed the studio like 3 months after saying that.

It’s just pathetic to keep excusing the trillion-dollar company for closing a Japanese studio that just delivered a GREAT game, how much did they save up by closing the studio? 50 million? 100 million? They make up to 25 billion in revenue each quarter and each year…

In fact, Tango’s closure made me realize Microsoft had taken over Xbox, as MS corporate doesn’t recognize talent or art, as another person put it, they’re tasteless and it’s why they fail time and time again with consumer products, now Xbox itself is being stripped apart by Microsoft just to make a quick buck selling games on PlayStation…

I think you are alluding to what I have been saying all along, @Millionski; if the console costs below £800, if won't be much of a PC (certainly not something to shout about by comparison), and so why would you get that instead of the PS6? Thus, for the Prime to be a PC, and something worth calling a PC, it is likely to cost very close to £1000, which in itself is likely to put off many potential buyers, particularly those that have been watching Microsoft these past couple of years and so have absolutely no faith in them or understanding of exactly where they are heading.

Personally, I think within the next 5 years, Microsoft just become a publisher (albeit, if their handheld is successful, they may continue to produce those). If they do take that route, then at best Game Pass becomes a first-party only service, which will then likely be allowed on to the PlayStation, which in itself means that buying a PS6 next time round is likely the best option because if your only real draw to Xbox is playing first-party games on the Service, then you would still get to have that as an option, but on the PlayStation instead, whilst also enjoying all the first-party offerings that Sony have too. Plus, as much as you see people say they will take the PC path next time round, many of them have no idea of the cost of a truly capable gaming PC, nor the hassle that can be involved in setting a game up and getting it to run properly.

Ultimately, it will be interesting to see exactly how Microsoft position the Prime in 2026/27...