The game console still has some life left in it after all. That’s the message that Sonny and Microsoft are trying to convey to consumers purchasing electronics in the coming years. Data over the past few years has suggested that tablets and smartphones may altogether sign the demise of the gaming console, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Especially if Amazon’s sales numbers have anything to do with it.
Amazon reported last week that during their peak selling times, when they had ample units of both the Xbox One and the Playstation 4 in stock, they sold at a rate of 1,000 units per minute. That’s a lot. But that’s not nearly as high as the rate both systems did on pre-orders. Amazon reported that the next gen console systems were pre-ordered at a rate of 2500 per minute. Preorder numbers from Amazon can be flawed though, because unlike brick and mortar competitors Best Buy and Gamestop, Amazon doesn’t require any kind of down payment on a preorder, only a valid credit card number tied to an account. Amazon customers can opt to cancel their preorder up to the last minute, before the item ships.
Cinemablend reports that according to stats from earlier in the month Xbox One and Playstation 4 had moved 2 million skus. Video game tracking site vgchartz.com however, reports that PS4 has sold 700,000 more units than the Xbox One at the time this article was written. At that pace, PS4 will reach a milestone many analysts predicted, outselling the Xbox One by a scale of 2:1.
PS4’s dominance over Xbox One may be the fact that the PS4 is available in more countries. However, PS4 debuted in the US with a 2 week exclusive before opening up to Europe and other parts of the world on Thanksgiving weekend. Xbox One on the other hand debuted in 13 countries on launch day and won’t expand further globally until next quarter. Sony is expected to reach a commanding lead when the PS4 launches in Japan in February.
The Xbox One is holding it’s own though. Microsoft has been able to keep Xbox One units in retailers a lot more than it’s rival PS4. At first that was thought to be a bad signaling issue showing that the demand of PS4 meant that it was the better system, however in the US, according to NPD, both systems are neck and neck.
Sales graph: vgchartz.com
