Some expected the demand for next generation consoles to be weak. They were wrong. Microsoft has just announced that over 3 million Xbox One consoles were sold before the end of 2013, making it one of the fastest selling consoles in history.
In a blog post, Yusuf Mehdi, Corporate Vice President of Marketing for Xbox, thanked those who bought the new console.
“It’s been incredible to see Xbox One selling at a record-setting pace for Xbox,” he wrote, “and we were honored to see Xbox One become the fastest-selling console in the U.S. during our launch month in November.”
We’re yet to hear precise numbers for the PlayStation 4, but it’s clear that Microsoft has done a far better job of matching supply to demand during the launch period. In Australia in particular, Sony appears to be having difficulty dealing with the numbers. Most estimates state you won’t be able to walk into a store and buy a PlayStation 4 (without a pre-order) until February. There are delays with shipments of the Xbox One, but not quite so extreme.
Mehdi also took the time to tout the Xbox One’s 2014 game line-up.
“We’re excited for the year ahead and will be working hard to bring Xbox One to more fans and more markets around the globe. 2014 will be a promising year with many more great games on the way for Xbox One including “Titanfall,” “Watch_Dogs,” “Project Spark,” “Sunset Overdrive,” “Tom Clancy’s The Division,” “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt,” “Destiny,” “Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare,” and “The Elder Scrolls Online,” among others. More games, more features, more content, more fun – all coming your way this year.”
2014 might just end up being a fairly decent year for console gaming!
Comments
40 responses to “Microsoft Sold Over 3 Million Xbox Ones In 2013”
Well that boycott went well… Well played rabid mouth frothing gamers on the internet.
Yeah all the online shenanigans though made them take a different approach though which means that it wasn’t all for nothing.
With all it’s flaws it is still a great machine. Just needs more games.
I still would have liked to see the Xbox one in its original concept just to see if it could succeed and how different it really would have been from our typical way of console gaming, but now we have to almost identical machines….also it would give me a better reason to own both 😐
I was surprised that there wasn’t 2 options. A cheaper discless one. Thats not to say there won’t be one in the future.
The original Xbox One wouldn’t have INITIALLY sold well, but word of mouth would have definitely given it long successful legs.
People would have LOVED the idea of installing games and never needing the disc again. I know I was hanging for that. Been replacing all my 360 and PS3 discs with digital Steam like sales on both those consoles and disc free is AMAZING.
If I had unlimited internet or a good internet connection then maybe. But I have neither and I don’t have the option for either. So, no it wouldn’t be awesome for me for at least 10 years (when my net is upgraded) or I move house (to somewhere magical)
The idea was to install from the disc, technically no downloads required just a sign in every day of a few Kb.
but because they changed their design last minute the day 1 games had to be downloaded in full….still don’t understand why a patch just couldn’t be applied?
The disc was the delivery method. That was the beauty of it. So you get the cheap pricing of discs, the comfort/security of owning the disc, but the convenience of digital.
Would have been magical and I hope they bring it back.
I would like an Xbox this time around, but Uncharted is steering me towards a Sony again. At least the consoles are cheaper this time around, so I should be able to afford both consoles early on in this generation..
I went the xbone but ill be getting a ps4 for uncharted. No way in hell am I missing out on that bad boy
Damn exclusives… I think I’m still gonna have to buy a PS3 just for Last of Us.
Just started my 3rd play through of TLOU. So good. So very, very good.
Does it eventually move away from the insistence on stealth? I am hating it so far 🙁
Well.. it’s pretty much a stealth game 😛 It’s kind of like asking if Gran Turismo ever gets away from it’s insistence on driving cars 😛
Its not everyones cup of coffee. I played it 3 times for the story. Gameplay is nothing special. Story… fantastic..
The story was good, I love stealth and zombie games but the tlou game play didn’t quite do it for as much as I thought it would…..
EDIT: Deleted.
Good news for the industry in general (maybe not Nintendo). If the demand is there for next-gen(current-gen) then the games will follow thick and fast
Good news. More investors in the console’s early lifespan means more games quickly.
So is this units sold to users, or shipped to stores? I never know what to think any more.
On Xbox Wire it literally says “Over 3 million Xbox One consoles were sold to consumers”, so I guess that’s the answer if you believe MS.
These figures Represent the Amount of Consoles Sold to stores, not individual people.
Just remember that MS sales figures always represent sold to stores, not to individual people.
No no, this is sold to consumers. They’re actually not allowed to lie about this stuff given they publicly release their financials.
It’s an easily believeable number given the PS4 being in such short supply (I know a few people who actually bought an Xbox One because they couldn’t be bothered wairting for PS4) and they sold almost 1 million in the US alone in November.
No it isnt. They dont have to tell us the amount sold to consumers, just retailers. But it isnt a lie, it is just a fact twisted a little.
Ms’s financial report is supposed to be as positive as it can be, and since Microsoft still received money per Xbone sold to retailers, it shows up on their financial report as a sale. So MS arent lying, just twisting a fact. The better the Financial Report, the happier the Sharholders and Boss’s are.
When MS announced the Xbone sales back at the end of november, it was a well known fact that it was the number sold to retailers not consumers.
Now it sounds like you think PS4 sales are lower. Incase you have lived under a rock, the PS4 is still selling out in a few hours around the world, while Xbone is still heavily in stock around the world.
Also, I have read countless and countless of articles over the past 2 months of Ps4 being restocked all over. But Ive heard only twice of Xbones being restocked.
Everything is indicating that PS4 sales are through the roof. I would not be surprised if PS4 has allready sold over 4.5 million copies.
Their is not a single indication the Xbone is selling better.
In America, Xbone and PS4 are head to head in sales, except for last month when PS4 was 300,000 sales ahead of xbone. In europe, PS4 has outsold Xbone by atleast 150,000 every month since launch. Absolutely no way can Xbone be ahead. Evidence is Evidence, and PS4 has ALOT of that to prove its infront. Especially since the last sales report that was released showed the Xbone at 2 million sales and PS4 at 2.9 million.
So you’re basically a fanboy that didn’t read my post properly?
Cool.
I said RIGHT IN MY POST that the PS4 is in short supply. Which means, sold out no? I also never said MS would be outselling them. Anywhere. I’m just saying, it was confirmed that the Xbox One numbers were sold through to consumers. Not shipped to retailers.
But you defending the Xbone’s sales isn’t fanboism. You Xbone fanboys are a joke.
Well Sony has just released PS4 sales figure, and PS4 sold 4.2 Million copies to Consumers by the end of 2013.
But I really think you need to read your previous comment cause I interpreted it very differently, and it does imply that you thought the Xbone would outsell PS4, especially when your saying Your friends got Xbones because PS4 was sold out.
Plus, go and read that comment where your calling me a Fanboy, and read it over and over again untill you realize how much of a tool you sound like.
Learn to interpret yourself better, cause you sound like a Xbone Fanboy trying to keep it subtle.
half of them were proboly brought for people to smash on youtube……cause apparently that is funny.
So all of the people who said “The sky is falling” ending up playing CoD with there mates on Xbox One after all.
I’m no businessman, but this just seems like normal market growth. It’s the initial release of something new and exciting so hype and enthusiasm are in their prime. Pre-orders will have been made in a time when gaming has started to take off and the pool of interested buyers is larger, especially seeing as there’s an established consumer base, so the initial sales will be skewed. The important part is this year, once the backlog of initially interested buyers has cleared. Selling 3 million units initially is impressive, but if that’s all you sell in its lifetime then it means nothing.
I don’t know, maybe I’ve just seen too many console launches to be excited or impressed anymore. #oldManGamer
We are still touting the better job of supply for ms ?
From most reports I have heard it has nothing to do with ms being better at supplying demand and everything to do with sony unable to keep up with massive demand and reports of sony selling more units globally.
If that is true then sony has done a better job of supply
You are assuming Sony has done an equal or better job of supplying units but they’re just selling out way faster. Care you share your evidence in support of that, considering we don’t have actual numbers for PS4 units sold?
I did say “from most reports” and also said “if it is true”
The reason I said this is because most stories I have read state that equal or more ps4 came in. Coupled with the fact that sony launched in more territories it is a educated guess on my part.
Like you alluded to we won’t know til official numbers get released.
And my suspicions have proven to be correct with sony outselling ms by 1.2 million.
MS announced before the launch that there goal was for any consumer to be able to walk into a store and buy an Xbox One. It’s not like people are going “Hmm, there are Xbox’s here, guess we can randomly conclude MS is doing their supply well”, this is MS living up to their pre-launch expectations.
I have been a gamer for 30 years+. I like console gaming. Press a button and play. I got my Xbox One on day one. Will also eventually get a ps4. I think the value for money for these consoles is pretty good considering you get the entire console for around the cost of one bleeding edge Vid card. However I am very dissapointed in the costs of the games. Blatent rippof and after buying my console with a couple of initial games, I have not purchased any more games for it and will only probably get the bare essential blockbusters. Here in Aus the prices are rediculous. Come on- Angry birds for 60 bux??? It’s 2 dollars on my tablet. Need for Speed 99 bux. Sorry guys you lost me.
This blatant rippoff has pushed me back to PC gaming where for the price of one xb One game I bought 2 to 4 excellent games on steam.
I wish they could learn from trail blazer app stores and steam where I buy games I dont even know about because they are only 10to 40 dollars, where on the console I think ooh I might try that and then see the price and uummmm no way not for that price. Back to steam to spend my next 100 dollars on another few excellent games..
Um, Xbox One and PS4 games in retail stores are cheaper than launch games have EVER been in Australia.
Using the outlier of Angry Birds on their repsective digital stores is a tad disingenuous.
Sorry, but new games on Steam are just as expensive as new games on Xbox One/PS4, except they’re digital. Steam “amazing prices” are a bit of a myth when we’re talking about NEW games.
The biggest difference is, game prices do drop quicker on Steam vs Consoles. But initial pricing is basically the same.
its far easier to buy a cheap steam cd key for brand new games 50% cheaper than what it is listed in the actual steam store, than what it is to get cheap digital keys for the consoles. I wish I could go and buy digital keys for games on the PSN/XBL from cheaper providers than what the local price is on their services, just because the retailers here in AUS rip us off, doesnt mean the digital download versions still need to be in the $100 region.
I would like to see some better sales for Xbox games though. They have had a decent run late in the last gen cycle, but it was mostly for games that were years old or not selling well on initial release anyway.
Still, there were a few gems in there (Like Borderlands 2 for under $10) that makes those sales worth while.
MS are caught between a rock and a hard place on this one though as like PS+, they have an ongoing program for giving away 2 games per month for free. Usually really crappy games, but they still need to keep that window open.
What I really want to see is better pricing for digital. Bear minimum 20% less than retail and you’ll get a lot more adopters of 100% digital.
Make it happen MS!
Probably the best console launch I’ve seen so far. Everything works, it has a lot of games (I’ve already built up a back-catelog for X1), the online is great (thank you dedicated servers) and it has a lot of features (I’m using it to create this message). I’m very happy with it.
Now all I need to do is buy a PS4 for uncharted.
Why would anyone downvote that comment? I’ve got 8 games and only played 6 of them for the x1. I’ll pick up a ps4 around June… Hopefully they are on Aussie shelves by then.
So far on the xb1 I got
Dead rising 3
fifa
Spartan assault
cod ghosts
Ryse
Lego avengers
bf4
assassins creed4
impressed with the console overall loving the little extra kinnect features the games have, like shaking the controller to get Zombies of you…feels more natural than button mashing
I wouldn’t say ‘Everything works’ with the Xbox platform. There’s still quite a few teething issues there, especially with the convoluted, erratic and sometimes outright broken party system.
Xbox one has a lot of vision, but in terms of functionality and reliability, their previous generation console is leaps and bounds ahead.
MS need to seriously update their system software on the one, there’s some real issues there still present.