Begun the sales wars have. Earlier this week Microsoft announced it had sold an impressive 3 million units before the end of 2013. Now Sony is waving its big number around — and it is a big one — 4.2 million PlayStation 4s sold before the end of last year.
It’s impressive. From Australia the story has undoubtedly been ‘high demand/low supply’. In this region at least, Microsoft has been far, far more efficient at putting consoles in the hands of consumers, meaning that the Xbox One has shifted more units here despite there being more pre-orders for the PlayStation 4. In other regions the story is similar, but it seems as though Sony has still managed to outsell Microsoft in many key markets.
That said, the PlayStation 4 proposition arguably appeals more to early adopters than Xbox One’s, which is targeted at a more mainstream audience. It’s next to impossible at this stage to predict who will sell more over the lifespan of the consoles but I suspect it will be very, very tight.
The good news, for us at least, is that both the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 have been massive successes at launch despite neither product really having any killer apps. Speaking anecdotally, many of my own friends are waiting for the games. I suspect 2014 will be a very big year for consoles in terms of units sold and games released.
Comments
35 responses to “Sony Sold 4.2 Million PlayStation 4 Units Before The End Of 2013”
Damn that’s impressive. Now we just need Nintendo to reveal its holiday numbers.
15.
3 of those were returned
I wouldnt mind knowing the PS3 sale numbers for this year to compare
Waiting for titanfall damnit
Weren’t they originally predicting 5 million by end of March? Looks like they’re well on track to beat that, especially since it doesn’t even launch in Japan until next month.
To my knowledge they always predict lower to get a higher returns at the stock market and to keep share holders happy. It is better to say they sold more than predicted than less.
PS4 has launched in 48 countries, while Xbox One has only launched in 13. So actually it’s pretty impressive on Microsoft’s end.
Waiting on the first hardware upgrade/form factor redesign. Which may mean no purchase til 2015. I doubt I’ll miss much that can’t be caught up on. The first year or two of the 360 and PS3 were pretty ordinary.
Not being a fanboy, but I can see that the Xbox will get a re-design – it’s big, ugly and doesn’t quite work properly, but I can’t see the need for a PS4 redesign in the next few years. It’s beautiful, small and works well, apparently,
It’ll have internal changes though which will probably aid with heating and things like that, which can be unnoticed but would benefit the longevity of the device.
But the most important change would be the hard drive size. I wonder how long it will take them to go beyond 500gb, and how reasonably priced they’d be.
I’m guessing that by the time I jump in the PS4 will have dropped in price, I probably won’t buy until it’s $399 with a game, and I’ll be able to plop in a 2TB or bigger drive without too much expense.
I’m waiting for DLNA/media format playback. Not having it in the box at launch is completely insane.
That won’t happen for a while. While anyone who’s seen an Xbox teardown can see obvious places they can trim down for an inevitable slim model, everything in the PS4 just fits so snugly, hence why it’s smaller than even the 3rd iteration PS3.
While the cockles of my heart are infused with warmth because I’m somewhat of a Playstation fan (especially with Sony’s attempts to help out indies) I have to be fair and unbiased in my Old Man Grumpies. An impressive showing, but an expected one since the market and established consumer base are larger now as well. This year is going to be where we start to see the real show.
In terms of sales quantities the launch of the PS4 has been massively successful, but despite having impressive numbers Xbox is falling 30% behind it’s key competitor. That’s not as good. That gap may widen. Remember the Saturn? That lost market share and then people would avoid it (correctly) thinking that it may go pop. I guess that’s no longer a significant risk as MS will sell a high amount of Xboxs, enough for it to be supported, and the close architecture would make it simple for quality ports.
In terms of other aspects neither console launches have been a success.
There’s been hardware issues with both.
Xbox can’t even stand on it’s side.
There’s no killer apps, and we’ve seen the gameplay of the launch titles to be the same of that for the previous gen titles – sure, to be expected I suppose, but how can we claim a success when so far we’ve not seen anything new or significantly superior to what we already have?
From the amount of consoles already sold it looks like both the Xbox and PS4 will be successful, but I still suspect that sales may falter at some stage unless we’re given experiences that are significantly better than we already have.
Personally I’ve lost most of my excitement for the PS4. What’s to be excited about. And not only do I have far too many PS3 games, and will be able to purchase many more at low costs as the newly released ones fall in price, but I’ve come to accept that instead of playing dozens of games I prefer to play just a few.
At the moment Battlefield 1943 is hogging all of my game time. I’ve been pushing myself to finish AC2, and MGS Revengeance, but I enjoy 1943 more.
This happened with the PS2 for me as well – which I had chipped and was able to download basically every title that I had any interest in. I ended up playing Burnout 3 and GTA pretty much only. Most games I abandoned after the first few hours.
So given that I’m likely to only really enjoy 6 to 12 games or so, why should I buy a PS4 when the console and games and accessories are at full price?
Also, I have so many driving games on PS3 that have not been delved into that I’d be extremely reluctant to buy any driving game on PS4, should I buy one. Why spend more money on things I won’t play?
The same could be said of other genres.
I will buy a PS4, it’s inevitable, but it would make sense for me to only buy a handful of games for the entire generation.
“At the moment Battlefield 1943 is hogging all of my game time. I’ve been pushing myself to finish AC2, and MGS Revengeance, but I enjoy 1943 more. ” I am guessing your lacking excitement for the PS4 because you’ve settled on playing games several titles down a series. Nothing wrong with that of course, but the rest of us are playing AC4, BF4 and getting pumped up for Metal Gear Solid V.
I had my PS3 since launch, and after 8-ish years it really was feeling slow and dated. I was more then happy to upgrade simply to experience better tech, being an avid Battlefield fan and getting Battlefield 4 on launch was just a bonus 🙂
Yeah this gen I was all about playing a lot of games, which I have, but there are sooooooo many. It’s impossible to play all the games that you would enjoy as so many of them are good, and time consuming. I think that the whole gaming industry is on some kind of treadmill and I’m stepping off. I’m not going to even consider keeping on top of games.
I wonder if this includes preorders. Most retail statistics I’ve found showed actual physical movement of units was higher for the XB1 than the PS4, but PS4 had a lot more preorders. Which would mean that while the PS4 has more sales, the XB1 would be in more homes worldwide, at least until the next manufacturing batch comes through.
This, I think sonys numbers are fluff and counting pre sold units. Which don’t count since they are not IN hand.
Sure Microsoft could be doing the same but the PS4 has far too many shortages to have hit that number, its all hogwash.
They’ve got shortages BECAUSE they’re selling those numbers.
No that is flat out nonsense, they have shotages because supply is less than demand, you can not claim what you have said as any kind of fact based solely on the mere presence of a shortage. To do so makes you an idiot.
As I said, considering the XB1 is sold out in places as well it makes very little sense that sony who already claimed stock problems before launch would some how outsell them when they can’t even fill basic pre orders made prior to launch.
If you try and claim otherwise your just deluding yourself.
LOL nice edit 😉
Interestingly the totals on vgchartz line up almost exactly with what both platform holders have said (4.13m PS4, 2.93m XB1, so 70,000 off on each), and those are based on actual sales, not pre-orders. So this number seems about right.
http://www.vgchartz.com/analysis/platform_totals/
I actually edited before i saw your comment since they were posted seconds apart.
Hogwash = nonsense, all i stated was that it was ALL nonsense and that i thought (by the I think they are fluff comment) sony’s numbers where untrue. Which regardless of truth was not a direct claimant of fact just my interpretation of them regarding them harping on about shortages before launch and all through launch and that by comaprison Microsoft wasn’t and that they too sold out so how is there such a huge discrepancy in units sold, of course all/most of that was lightly implied.
What you stated was a definitive ” they have shortages because they sold 4.2 million”, based solely on this article (at the time at least, you’ve since posted the vg) and worded as FACT as ther ewas no other interpretation.
So there is a difference even before i edited which is what i was arguing about, you need to be very literal in arguments as people often make the mistake of implying or thinking they’ve said 1 thing when how they’ve actually said it directly indicates something else.
In this case you probably meant you believe or think its highly likely that they have the shortages because they really did sell 4.2 million units not that you are directly claiming it as fact (which is what you actually did), which in an argument makes a rather large difference.
In regards to VG charts i see no evidence or proof to see how those numbers are real or relevant nor can i easily find how or where those numbers come from, so it doesn’t make it all that reliable. Though considering we are likely to never get real official sold in hand confirmed numbers its a moot point in the end.
But you can’t claim otherwise unless you know what Sony pre-orders are… Sony claim shortages early because they couldn’t make more than 4.2mil… They might have internal figures that preorders might have been 5mil? 7.5mil? Pick a number mil! So they are right to justify shortages
You are also forgetting how long it takes to make a console and how long thy have been manufacturing for… The two companies didn’t have a meeting to say they would make the same amount of consoles, the PS4 might take 15mins less per console, that efficiency adds up over time
Your stance is based on nothing but your own bias or preconceived ideas. Sony announced 1 million sales in the USA on launch and MS had the same worldwide. Why are their numbers so hard to believe. There was also an inflated number of xbones in oz compared to other markets and the ps4 so it would ‘appear’ to Aussies that MS had a lot more units and eventually sold more….but that gives no indication of numbers available in say the USA or other larger markets.
These are local reports, where MS could very we’ll be leading in Australia, we are such a tiny market though that doesn’t seem to reflect the rest of the world.
That being said, we’ve never been told how many Sony shipped here, but I’ve heard whispers that the pre-Christmas shipped was rather large so it wouldn’t surprise me if Sony did have thee nose in front over here
There would be no way they are counting pre-orders though, as they would have distribution records for consoles shipped prior to the end of the year that they would have to validate to shareholders, etc.
As far as shareholders are concerned, preorders are sales. I don’t doubt they ‘sold’ more, I’m just curious how many are actually out in the world right now. Sony likes to underproduce because it makes nice headlines, ‘PS4 sold out in a day’ and all that, so it would fit with other info that XB1 has more units worldwide right now than Sony does, despite having fewer sales.
The XB1 did move more units, but sold less. Most retailers seem to have more XBoxes ‘in stock’ simply because there was less demand for them. Personally, I’ve found most people went for the PS4 because it was more of a gaming console, for a cheaper price.
Considering PS4 launched in over 30 countries and X1 only 13 with limited manufacturing for X1 I’m actually more impressed with X1’s performance TBH. Well done to both platforms though, the competition is heating up and there have been some great launch window games already.
I think Microsoft did well to ship 3million after their reveal, that was a good bounce back, but what you have said means nothing.
From all reports, the PS4 is basically still sold out, so in the end they still made and sold 4.2mil, doesn’t matter where they are sold.
The Xbone, again from all reports is still available in most countries with no issue, the end result is that even if they shipped the same amount or less, they still only sold 3mil…
If Sony could produce more then the difference would only be larger, or considering the preorders still could have sold out if they focused on the same countries as MS
Both have sold very well, my main point stands due to PS4 released in 3 times as many countries as X1 though. I would agree Sony take the title of leading sales next gen console at this stage. When you look over the life of PS vs. XB wars it’s clear how well both perform and each month leading sales sway to each competitor.
While true, that’s also quite misleading. Those 17 PS4-exclusive countries are collectively, probably a smaller market than the UK or Germany. Then there’s the fact that the Xbox launched a week earlier in every market but the USA and neither have touched Japan, a market that’s probably larger than those 17 combined. While “3 times as many markets!” is a great tagline, it’s a minor logistical achievement that the PS4s are on shelves and that’s about it.
The fact is, I can still walk into virtually any EBGames or Kmart and come out with an Xbox whereas I cannot with a PS4 until at least March (the February stock is all allocated). Is this hurting Sony? Probably. It’s like the time Microsoft boasted that WP8 had outsold iOS in 7 markets only for them to be India and some other developing countries where the overwhelming majority of people can’t afford an iPhone anyway. Sales figures are great, but they’re not an accurate representation of consumer demand.
That’s so awesome, I can’t believe 4.2 million people are all playing the same 10 games……Hey sony, some games yeah ?
I wonder what the number would be if it was ‘consoles in households’ not ‘consoles sold’? their back orders would be massive.
The King is back