The Xbox Vs PlayStation War Just Got A Crushing New Stat For Microsoft Fans

The war of public perception of greatness between Microsoft and Sony is never-ending, especially when it comes to their roles as creators of the gaming brands Xbox and PlayStation. Much the way PC gamers often tend to be either "Team AMD" or "Team NVIDIA," console gamers also have a tendency to pick Xbox or PlayStation and stick with it, generation after generation. Sony and Microsoft continue to release new iterations of Xbox and PlayStation every few years, only adding fuel to the flame with new features, supported games, and performance metrics. In the latest battle of this ongoing war, a new legal filing reveals that Sony has Microsoft beat in one devastating way: the number of consoles sold.

Xbox and PlayStation consoles compete against one another in various ways, including their paid subscription plans, and many players tend to swear by one or the other instead of getting both. That's not unreasonable at all — after all, these gaming consoles are expensive, and there are plenty of titles that offer cross-platform gameplay, such as "Fortnite," "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare," or "Apex Legends." Crossplay is increasingly important, and as it becomes more commonplace, gamers are less and less inclined to buy both an Xbox and a PlayStation. With that said, there are still some console-specific exclusives that might tempt a customer in the direction of Sony or Microsoft.

Whatever the reason, it seems that in the generation of consoles that included Xbox One and PS4, gamers were far more inclined to choose Sony than Microsoft. According to the aforementioned filing, Sony sold a lot more PlayStation 4 units than Microsoft did Xbox One.

This revealing legal filing from Brazil pertains to the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft. It was first unearthed by Thurrot, which has also taken the trouble to translate it. According to the document, Sony has Microsoft beat in terms of both console sales and install base, and the filing admits that Sony has sold twice as many consoles as Xbox did in the previous generation. This, of course, refers to the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One.

As of March 31, 2022, Sony sold more than 117.2 million PlayStation 4 consoles. Half of that is 58.6 million, which means that Microsoft must have sold no more than 58.6 million units of Xbox One consoles as of the end of the first quarter of 2022. Thurrot estimated that a likely ballpark figure for units sold by Microsoft by the third month of 2022 was between 50-55 million. 

While the Xbox One didn't fare well, it seems that its successor is doing much better. According to a recent Microsoft earnings call, the Xbox Series X and S are the fastest-selling Xbox consoles to ever be released. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has also claimed that Xbox Series X|S has managed to sell more units than PlayStation 5 in the United States for the last four consecutive months. There may be some important reasons for this — especially taking into account the array of supply and demand issues the gaming industry has faced over the last few years. Let's hope that some official numbers will be released in the future so that we can see the total number of consoles sold and compare the two generations.