After a slump following the pandemic, console sales have recovered this year thanks to the resurgence of Sony’s PlayStation and its strong lineup of blockbuster titles.
Sony announced on Wednesday that it has sold 50mn PlayStation 5s, almost as fast as its previous generation. The company overcame long-standing supply issues to outsell Microsoft Xbox by nearly three to one by 2023.
According to Ampere Analysis’ research, the console market, including hardware, services, and software, is expected to grow by 7.2 percent this year, to $60.9 billion, following a decline of 7.3 percent in 2022.
The market has grown to almost the same size as in the 2021 pandemic boom. The PS5 was made more available and there were a wide range of great games, including Sony’s Spider-Man 2 Microsoft’s Starfield as well as Nintendo’s Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Sony’s PS5 launched in late 2020 and was plagued with component shortages. Demand far exceeded supply until early this year.
Eric Lempel said Sony Interactive Entertainment’s head of global business, Eric Lempel, that supply issues had been “solved” and its latest console is now on track for outselling the PlayStation 4, first released in 2013, which went on to sell over 117mn copies.
“I believe we can get there,” “Demand was enormous for [PS5] at the beginning of this year. . . The momentum is now strong and continues.”
Sony announced that it reached the 50 million sales milestone 161 weeks after the launch of the PS5 on December 9. Compare this to the 160 weeks that it took for the PS4’s release before reaching the same milestone. Microsoft hasn’t published official Xbox Sales figures in several years.
Microsoft’s battle to finish its $75bn purchase of Call of Duty manufacturer Activision Blizzard has made headlines in this year, but its Xbox hardware is a distant third behind Sony and Nintendo.
According to Ampere, PS5 sales increased by 65 percent to 22.5 million units in 2018, while Xbox sales fell 15 percent to 7.6 million. Nintendo’s Switch console, which was released in 2017 but is expected to be replaced with a newer model next year, saw its sales fall 18% to 16.4mn.
“There was a lot of pent-up demand Ampere’s head of research for games, Piers Harding Rolls, said that Sony broke all records when it received the PS5 supply.
Harding-Rolls said that Microsoft also had supply issues for its Xbox Series X, the more expensive model, in the first six months of this year. Its flagship titles Redfall, and Halo Infinite were also affected.
According to Carolina Milanesi of Creative Strategies, the divergence in fortunes between Sony and Microsoft is also a reflection of a shift away from hardware by Microsoft over the last couple of years.
She said that Sony is more concerned with selling hardware, but Microsoft’s focus is on their subscription service. For a monthly subscription fee, the US company’s Game Pass includes access to hundreds games, which can be played via Xbox, PC, or streaming over the internet.
Microsoft has yet to reveal its plans following the October deal, but Activision-Blizzard is expected to include their games in Game Pass.
Several big games have been delayed over the past few years, despite the disruption of hardware during the Covid-19 pandemic. As offices closed, game creators faced production challenges. However, many of these games were released in 2023.
Critics and players alike hailed it as a great year for big-budget releases and smaller independent ones, such as Baldur’s Gate 3 Diablo IV, and the Harry Potter spinoff Hogwarts legacy.
Lempel said that many consumers are looking forward to a certain game to be the catalyst for them to jump to a new-generation console. He cited exclusive titles like Spider-Man 2.
Sony’s strategy is being challenged by the ever-growing challenge that some of the most popular multiplayer online games in the world are available on all consoles.
Epic Games’ Fortnite can be played both on old consoles and the latest hardware. In November, the game “Battle Royale”, which was revived with its original “map”, had a resurgence after a live performance by rapper Eminem.
According to Ampere estimates, Fortnite users increased by 17mn in November to reach 52.9mn across Xbox and PlayStation.
Lempel, however, said that the Black Friday sale period made it the best November ever for PlayStation sales in Sony’s nearly 30-year gaming history, both in terms of units sold and revenue.
Accessory items such as the new Portal, a portable screen with controller that allows you to play PS5 games without a TV screen were also popular.
PlayStation VR2, its latest virtual-reality goggles, has been slower to catch on. Lempel admitted that the category was “a little challenging” at present, despite its “good” sales. He said that Sony was committed to its virtual reality products. However, he added: “I believe there were higher expectations for what VR could do for gaming.”
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