PS5 shipped almost 5x more than Xbox Series X/S in Q1, research firm estimates

Sony shipped almost five times as many PS5 consoles as Microsoft did Xbox Series X/S consoles during the first calendar quarter of 2024.

That’s according to estimates from sales tracker Niko Partners, shared on X by Daniel Ahmad, the company’s director of research and insights.

Sony reported today that it shipped 4.5 million PS5 units during the three months ended in March, taking its lifetime total to 59.3 million.

While Microsoft doesn’t report Xbox Series X/S console sales numbers, it confirmed a significant drop in hardware revenue in its earnings report for the first quarter of the year.

Activision Blizzard software sales actually helped drive Microsoft’s gaming division to a record quarter, but Xbox hardware revenue declined 31% year-over-year.

Having both launched in November 2020, PS5 had outsold Xbox Series X/S by around 2-to-1 as of the end of last year, according to data shared in February by Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two.

During 2023 alone, PS5 sales outpaced Xbox Series X/S by almost 3-to-1, according to estimates by research firm Ampere Analysis.

Last year, Microsoft openly admitted to having “lost the console wars”, having consistently ranked third behind PlayStation and Nintendo in terms of sales since entering the market with the original Xbox in 2001.

Through its acquisition of multiplatform blockbusters like Minecraft and Call of Duty over the years, Xbox was already a major publisher on PlayStation and Nintendo consoles.

But in February, Microsoft delivered an Xbox business update which confirmed plans to bring more first-party games to rival platforms, initially in the form of Pentiment, Hi-Fi Rush, Sea of Thieves and Grounded.