April NPD: PS4 Outsells Xbox One for Fourth Consecutive Month

We just need to win for June. I wanna see how the $399 Xbox One stacks up.

June is going to be interesting since E3 will be taking place at the same time as Xbox One's price cut. Depending on how well Sony and Microsoft does at E3 could have a huge impact on Sony's lead and Microsoft's price cut. Sony needs to make sure they have stock in stores otherwise most people will just get what's in stock by default since they will be the same price.

I new this all along. Thinking you can beat a giant with a high price and a fancy camera and a Xtra 100 dollars 💵 for a far less powerful system haha 😂 I laugh at the X-rags.

Yeah the race has been one sided. But E3 will give us all a good look on what direction Sony and Microsoft are going. Hardware is a done deal. It's all about the games at this point and both systems are lacking. PS4 really needs a killer game to dominate software sales like Titanfall is doing.

@SimonAdebisi or wait for E3 for some more exclusives to be announced and make your decision based on that. That is, if you can wait that long and only plan on getting one system.

I've got to admit that I'm not really interested at all in how many Xbox Ones sell (or not). However, I do think we should be cautious about how we look at these figures because if Titanfall is topping the charts that might mean Xbox are making more money from fewer consoles. Considering that it's generally accepted that the real money is made from game sales perhaps we shouldn't be prematurely celebrating yet.

For some reason I just can't see the Xbone price cut making a lasting difference.

Of course sales will go up on its release but I just don't think the demand is there for X1 as MS seem to think there is. Much of their 360 momentum has moved over to PS4.

MS annoyed a lot of consumers with their always online and second hand game policies last year (me included), they have a weaker machine and keep making 180's. Gamers aren't stupid and know where the best deal is and it's with Sony this gen...

That VGChartz. com seems to be way off every month/week with its PS4 numbers then. Shame someone couldn't shut them down for blatant misleading

• the Xbox ONE was above the PS4 in the Amazon UK charts when it was £349.99 at Easter time so not sure if it will still sell less. Should be an interesting month next month. I hope SONY tho show some killer games at E3 but normally whatever SONY do the internet say Microsoft won E3, YAWN

Yep.

@Dodoo

It's not that "MS thinks there's demand there". This is their console for the next 8 years, and their job is to do whatever they can to sell it to the public. If there's not enough demand, their job is to create demand.

But I think people are drastically underestimating the Xbox One. I live in the US, and here Xbox is a household name. It's kind of taken the place of Nintendo as the go-to console for younger kids, although people of all ages buy them. 2 million less in console sales while only released in 1/3 the countries as PS4 AND considering the DRM fiasco at reveal, is nothing to sneer at. These consoles will go on to sell 80+ million. A difference in 2 million now is pocket change.

You say the 180's like it's a bad thing. But the real offense would have been if they DIDN'T do a 180 and stayed on the previous course. MS doing 180's is the best decision they've made yet, and has made enough of an impact on me to convince me to buy their console now.

So I'll end up owning all three consoles after I buy an X1. But yes, I did choose PS4 first because I game for a hobby and pay attention to the little details. But keep in mind most people (out of the hundreds of millions who buy home consoles) aren't like us. They don't care about little differences in resolution or framerate. They see all the multiplats on X1, that's all they care about. As long as the game is there. Most people are impressed with the X1's graphical capabilities, not complaining about the missing 108 lines found in the PS4 version of the game they're playing.

The biggest mistake people make is assuming vast majority of people who buy home consoles are like us and think like us. PS4 shows a small lead now, but that's probably due to the fact that most early adopters game for a hobby, and people who game for a hobby are the ones who pay attention to gaming news, specs, etc. The rest of the masses buy later, and those people couldn't care less about 900p vs 792p. So I think as time goes on and more and more of the masses upgrade to 8th gen, you're going to start seeing a surge in interest for the Xbox One.

@ScreamAimFire99 Yea, I am looking forward to seeing how things stack up now that Xbone dropped Kinect as well

@JaxonH - You're right. If MS hadn't made the 180's that would have likely been worse. The problem is is that they shouldn't have put themselves in that position in the first place. They really showed their arrogance and annoyed a lot of gamers.

It's good the 180's has been enough for you to buy into the XB1. For me they drove me away and I bought a PS4 (after having the original Xbox and 360). I won't be getting an XB1 as my PS4, Vita and Wii U are more than enough.

I realise the Xbox brand is bigger in the US than anywhere else. It's the home market after all so maybe not much of a surprise. Thing is Sony are stronger than they may appear.

It is widely known that PS3 and 360 sold about the same. I think about 80 million units last time I checked but what isn't taken into consideration with that figure are the amount of re-buys made from those that had RROD on their 360. I would imagine it's not an exaggeration to say probably only 50 million of those 360 sales were "unique" and the other 30 million were those buying their 2nd, 3rd, 4th or even 8th Xbox 360. With that in mind Sony have a good stronghold in the US too. i think MS like to try and make people believe otherwise however...

@ScreamAimFire99 TitanFall is not doing that well, it just happens to be doing be doing better than the rest right now. 1 million sales (last I heard), launched on 3 platforms isn't exactly ground breaking.

@adf86 In the UK on Amazon, the XB1 has moved up to 44th position from about 65th-70th before the Kinect-free edition was announced.

Still it's early days yet I suppose...

EDIT - In the "Hot New Releases" section it's currently 81st on Amazon.

Much as I hate the Xbots...I think I'm just going to get an Xbox One out of pity. Besides, my next-gen collection of systems is only missing the Xbox One. A 3DS, Vita, Wii U and PS4...It just doesn't feel complete without it.

@JaxonH
Its a common misconception (and clever marketing) that the gap is 2 million. Its actually closer to 3 million. Keep in mind that the numbers Microsoft gave us, are how many shipped (this includes all of the units still sitting on store shelves, which the last numbers we got for this was about 1 million). The numbers Sony gave us are how many sold (as to an actual customer, not a store). So if you take Microsofts 5 million shipped and subtract whats likely on the shelves, you get 4 million vs 7 million. A difference of 57%.

If Microsoft and Sony both sold the exact same amount from here on out, then 2-3 million difference is nothing, This is not the case, however. Sony is selling more, faster, so that gap will widen.

When this gap widens, it will start to feed itself. Stores will allocate more shelf/floor space to the unit that sells the most. They will prominently feature the unit that sells the most. They will try and convince you to buy the unit that sells the most (unless they are trying to dump stock). Media coverage will focus more on the unit that sells the most. Exclusive games (or timed exclusive, or exclusive DLC) will come more to the unit that sells the most. So, yes, Average Joe Gamer does not know, or care, about specs, but he will be funneled to buy "the unit everyone is getting" from many different sources. This system will just feed itself, making more people buy the popular unit, makes the popular unit even more popular.

Microsoft has to either dump a ton of money fighting this cycle (which they havent seemed to do yet), or somehow stop the gap from widening so that the difference becomes negligible the more that are sold.

@thedevilsjester Yeah I know but it is still on top.

@ScreamAimFire99 I'm not quite sure what you are referencing replying to me. I know the PS4 is on top, and its likely to stay that way unless Sony stumbles, and I like it that way. I am a Sony fan through and through, if that was not apparent from my posts.

So am I. I can see how my posts seem like they are defending Titanfall and Xbox One but I am not. I'm just saying facts are facts. Titanfall is on top of the charts. Even though it isn't a real exclusive, Microsoft and EA are showboating it. And there is really not much else to play right now. But Sony has this. All of our beautiful games are in development.

@ScreamAimFire99 Oh I get you, but what you don't realize is that the sales of TitanFall on the Xbox One are about the same as inFamous on the PS4. TitanFall sales only look a lot better when they factor in PC and 360 sales as well. So since we are comparing Xbox One and PS4, only the sales of the games on their specific platforms actually matter.

Yeah exactly. Titanfall isn't a true exclusive like Infamous. And Second Son sold 1 million copies in 9 days. Titanfall sold about 925,000 since the start of this month.

@thedevilsjester

It's a 57% difference, but a 57% difference of a 5% slice (possibly as low as 2-3%) of total predicted sales. Which is a really small pool of data to draw conclusions from.

And again, it's only been 6 months. Current trends can and will change as time goes on. Just because Sony's selling more now, doesn't mean squat for what will be the case in 2 years, 3 years, 5 years time. As I stated earlier, the people who tend to buy early are the ones who will be attracted to the PS4. The ones who tend to gravitate toward the X1 will buy later, and when that happens those current trends could be reversed.

I couldn't care less who sells more. It means nothing. It's just a noisy distraction from talking about what really matters- games. But I do think people should recognize that no one is in a position to brag or boast at the moment. It's an 8 year marathon that only just started a few months ago.

That cycle you refer to does not apply when a console is still selling in sufficient quantity. Only when a console is severely struggling for a substantial amount of time do you see a shift in shelf space. And MS is made of money. They don't call em M$ for nothing, ya know. The ads will never stop. They marketing will never stop. The publicity will never stop.

@JaxonH Microsoft cant just throw money at a problem to solve it, they have shown this time and again with Zune, Windows Phone, Surface, etc... Granted the Xbox One is nowhere near the disaster that those devices are, and there are actually people that, for one reason or another want an Xbox One. But you cant say that its a 5% slice of the total projected sales because thats assuming that the gap stops growing, which is shows no indication of doing. We will see what the $399 price does, but the Kinect drop does as much harm as it does good because it shows to customers that Microsoft has no idea what they are doing, they are all over the map and constantly changing directions. If the gap continues to widen, after a year or more of this, it will be irreparable. Sony managed to close the gap with the PS3 selling at a higher price, with a year less on the market, and Microsoft with its foot in the (then) Next Gen door a year earlier. That is an impressive feat. Unless Sony completely drops the ball, there is no way that this gap doesnt continue to grow, and it will feed itself, it did with the 360 during the last gen, and it will this generation.

@thedevilsjester

You're over-analyzing things.

The vast majority of people who buy consoles don't know or care about any of the issues you have listed. Multiple RRoD didn't stop people from wanting to buy a new Xbox- most people went right back out and bought another one. And another one. A few bad decision reversals aren't nearly as serious an issue.

The biggest mistake people make is assuming that everyone who buys consoles thinks like they do. And cares about all the little stuff that they do. There are hundreds of millions of people who buy consoles. There may be 10 million or so that had their decisions affected by all these policy reversals, but for the remaining 190 million people, they don't follow that sort of news, nor do they care to. I get that you like Sony and all, but sitting here declaring console war victory a little 2 million gap only 6 months into the generation, is not wise to say the least. I want you to consider, just for a moment, if the tables were turned and X1 was sitting at 7 million while PS4 was at 5 (or wherever). You're stance would no doubt be that it's too early to judge and that you obviously can't draw conclusions after such an extremely short period of time.

Zune, Surface, Windows Phone, are failed product lines for MS. They couldn't break into the mp3 player, phone or tablet markets. They HAVE broken into the gaming console market for many years now. That's the difference. Sony has just as many embarrassing failures, if not more. I'm not even going to list them because this isn't a tit for tat argument but we all know what I'm referring to. MS having problems with other markets has nothing to do with their established presence in this one.

I really, honestly, 100% believe that this is a complete and utter waste of one's time and resources. It's just fanboy fodder is all it is. A cheap excuse to bolster one's own ego. I am firmly in the camp of "I don't give a flying $#%@ " because all this is meaningless anyways. You've got multi-billion dollar analyst firms that can't even project future results with accuracy. Random diehard fans certainly don't possess that skill. The possibilities and fluctuations in the market are too complex to predict. These new consoles have been out 6 months. Neither you, nor I, nor anyone else can say with even REMOTE certainty of how things are going to pan out in the future.

But, you believe what you want. If you're so confident that you can conclude long term market trends from nothing more than sales data from a 6 month time line, then I strongly suggest applying for a position as a market analyst, because you're gifted beyond measure of any human being I've ever heard of. They have high-end market-analysis software that can't even accurately predict where things will be in several years time. The whole world doesn't follow fansite stories and base decisions accordingly. The vast majority of the world buys consoles in a more casual manner. Therefore, your rational for why this or that won't or will sell is inapplicable. They're decision process is completely different that what you're assuming it will be.

Bottom line, arguing about who's gonna outsell who is a ridiculous waste of time and energy. I've made my point that not even the most gifted individuals who do this for a living can say with certainty where PS4 and X1 will be in a few years time, and I've made it clear that the vast majority of console-shopping customers don't pay attention to things like MS policy reversals. If multiple hardware issues last gen didn't stop the vast majority of customers from sticking with Xbox, politics certainly aren't going to have an affect.

EDIT: I don't mean to sound upset or be rude with that post or anything. It's just that one of my pet peeves is when people put undue focus on sales, particularly so early on in the generation. Like, "Sony has sold 2 million more consoles so it's a wrap, Xbox is doomed to failure now, the writing is on the wall, etc". I mean, don't get me wrong, I am a Sony fan just like you. But first and foremost I'm a gamer, and that comes before brand loyalty. If I as a person enjoy playing video games, it would be ill-conceived to limit myself to only part of the menu on offer. I've never owned an Xbox product but I plan to change that soon with the Xbox One. Like I said, I'm not particularly fond of MS, but I don't feel they need to be slammed over such little things like a 2 million difference in sales with over 7 years to go, especially considering that even if they DO end up selling less, it STILL means nothing. A console doesn't have to take first place in this illegitimate console war in order to be a massive success and/or provide a solid gaming experience to those who enjoy playing games.