Crikey! PS4's Install Base Reaches 35.9 Million Units

Ridiculous numbers, makes you wonder what it'll take to actually slow it down.

@ShogunRok I predict the install base will easily reach 70 million by 2018. Definitely gonna pass 50 million this year with ease.

My contribution:

Impressive stuff! So much so that it's forced MS to stop touting sales numbers at all for X1!

@Dodoo the XB1 sales would be higher if they hadn't effed up it's reveal and launch

That's great. More PS4 sales means more support, which translates to more games for the players. Keep the snowball rolling Sony, keep it rolling.

@FullbringIchigo So very true. Don Mattrick has a lot to answer for and no wonder they got rid of him soon after that balls up!

I'd guess that's better than the first 25 months of PS3 sales but how were PS2 sales?

Really have to give Sony credit as I still think those sales are driven more by marketing than by Sony exclusive games, which will be releasing this year. And dropping the camera. And continuing to lower the price even with those sales numbers, $400, $350, $300 on sale. And a wide variety of bundles. They aren't just letting the thing sell itself, they are working at it, as they should.

And all that PS+ money year after year after year.

VR will be intetesting, Oculus Rift pre-orders start on Wednesday, still no price though.

Congrats Sony, I think 100 million might be doable. Never would have thought that pre-launch.

@Dodoo yeah, it's going to be a LONG time until they recover the trust of the gamers they burnt

i'm sure by the end of it's life span it will have sold well but i don't think it's going to be anywhere near the sale numbers they saw with the 360

How the hell did they manage to ship 5 million units in the space of a month?

Glad to hear it, I want the install base as big as possible when vr launches.

Console gaming died didn't it? Or is that next gen? Or the year after?

We loves consoles for this reason = easy to use, hassle free, great experience. They will always sell well.

@Anchorsam_9 Really big cargo ships.

I'm one who just got a PS4 in December. I don't feel the current library is all that great (for my tastes) but the upcoming games are too promising to ignore... And this is coming from a die hard Nintendo junkie.

@get2sammyb i always found the market in the UK to be pretty even between PS and XB but yeah outside of North America it's not a huge brand, especially in the Asian market

What's even more incredible is the amount of money they make off of it! PS4s are relatively cheap to produce now and with an RRP of $350 they have an extremely good profit margin. I hope they'll go all in this year and lower the price to $250 so everyone will get to enjoy a PS4. By doing so they would have a incredible marketshare which in turn would boost their VR business. With a price like that you start attracting audiences that otherwise wouldn't be interested, probably without losing any money on it. Within a year, maybe 2, Sony would be able to offer you a complete VR experience for $499, and ultimately that's what VR needs.

@KingofSaiyans good one! ✌️

@get2sammyb Thank you kind sir. PS1 never even crossed my mind, it was the new kid on the block, I can't imagine it did gang busters out of the gate,as great as it was. Doing better than PS2 is nuts though, Sony was all in on that one at launch.

Let's not forget that competition is healthy. If Sony is doubling their competitors it puts them in a position where they never have to offer AAA ps+ games (the only offer was after the ddos last year), etc.

@themcnoisy Yea console gaming died years ago I'm surprised websites like this are up since no one plays on consoles anymore

So glad PS4 and xbox consles are selling well. I gave up pc gaming after buying my PS4 on launch. As a gamer who works I just love coming home, chat to misses, eat switch on console and play on big fat tv. Do I miss the days of pc fiddly drivers, bi-annual hardware upgrades, more expensive annual electric bill (£200 more ^_^ - can get me 12 decent 2nd hand games a year), stupid pc desk taking up space just for keyboard/mouse? Nah! Can't wait to see in a couple years what PS5/xbox 2 consoles would do.

@get2sammyb Very true, but I still don't want Sony to steamroll over everyone too badly, a tighter race with other consoles (and of course PC) is better for the consumers.

https://twitter.com/ZhugeEX/status/684531019253444608

.....

lack of competition this is the reason Microsoft tried to rip off there customers at the reveal and no one was having it they have not recovered from that and never will now this generation has been steamrollered by Sony congratulations to Sony but Microsoft did not help themselves at all .

@shadowman1
I feel sorry for Xbone. I really like mine, but I agree, MS didn't do themselves any favors. Watching the old release again on youtube, it really does feel like watching a slow motion train wreck. My biggest fear is that they'll decide to call it quits after this, because like I said, I really enjoy my Xbone.
(T-T )

@FullbringIchigo They are not going to recover, at least not in this console generation. They will sell sure, but not more than 50/60 mil tops, and that's being generous.

@slampog i guess as long as it turns a profit then MS will be happy with how the system does no matter how many are sold by the end of it's life

after all it is just about the money at the end of the day

I think people really overstate Microsoft's E3 blunder as having an effect on this. The majority of people don't know what E3 is, let alone actually watch it. Sorry to repeat myself but what I'd say was much more relevant was the crappy last few years for the 360. I had one for the whole of last gen and didn't get a PS3 until around when the PS4 came out. I ended up really regretting going with Xbox. It just stopped existing for me by the end whereas PS3 just had killer year after killer year. It was especially noticeable for someone like me that doesn't really care about Halo and Gears of War (not after the first games in the series, anyway).

Besides, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm sure I read in several places that although the Xbone was getting thrashed by the PS4 right out of the gate, MS's new console was actually selling better than the 360 (not in Japan, though). That's probably slowed now as PS4 gets more of a hold on the market, but I'm 99% sure that was the case at first, anyway.

@FullbringIchigo @slampog
Just to throw it out there. For as 'poor' as Xbox One is selling it's outpacing the 360 which moved over 80 million units. I agree it won't ever catch the PS4, but the console is not actually selling badly at all.

@Gamer83 i'm not saying it's bad but with the way MS treated gamers when it was announced such as the whole "Deal With It" fiasco the reputation of the XBOX brand was ruined to everyone but the hardcore fanboys and i think it will take a LONG time for them to get the trust of the general gaming population back and the system won't be anywhere near as huge as they hoped it would be

i think it will still be a success for MicroSoft though

@FullbringIchigo Again, that's really overstated. It's doing better at than the 360 did. I think people like us who post on gaming sites and read gaming news each day can often really overestimate the reach of E3 and the general atmosphere on the internet.

http://segmentnext.com/2016/01/06/xbox-one-is-the-best-selling-xbox-ever-but-is-a-worthy-opponent-for-ps4/

>Thanks to you, Xbox One continues to outpace Xbox 360 at the same point in time in the Xbox 360 generation, making it the best-selling console in Xbox console history.

The main thing seems to be that Sony got off to an unusually slow start (for them) last gen. This is just anecdotal, but I'd bought and loved the PS1 and PS2 and for some reason didn't get a PS3 last gen until my friend gave me one about 2 years ago. So it's not as much that MS messed up at E3 or anything, it's more than Sony unperformed (again, for them) last gen. I think what MS did mess up was how the 360 severely tapered off in the last few years whereas the PS3 continued to get stuff like The Last of Us and Ni no Kuni.

One of the problems last gen was that the PS3 got handled pretty easily in North America, which, like every where else was a market Sony had dominated for its first two gens. This gen its gained back many people who left the PS2 for Xbox. This is just anecdotal evidence but I've heard it from others as well, many of my friends who usually go with just one console went with the 360 for a lot of reasons at the early part of last-gen. But with the way things finished, the brilliant way Sony played off the mistakes of the X1 reveal and the $100 price difference all had most of the people I game with going back to PlayStation, which is where they had been in our jr. high and college years. And most of them held off their 360 purchases waiting for a PS3, until Sony's disastrous E3 2006. Just as Sony did a great job turning PS3 around, however, MS acted even quicker and has made Xbox One a very nice, software-focused console. But - I don't care what anybody says - that first impression is 99% of the time the most important.

@Matroska true the last few years of the 360 was pretty poor and the start of the XB1 wasn't great either

the problem is when it comes to sales MS don't look anywhere outside of North America and so you can never get a accurate reading of the market and it may have been the best selling XBOX in the U.S but worldwide it's apparently pretty poor

for example from what i remember in Japan it was selling worse than the 360 did compared to the 360 at that point in time during it's generation for it's launch week in Japan the XB1 sold 23,562 units but the 360 sold 62,000 units during it's launch

take that against the PS4 which sold 322,083 in Japan in the first 2 days of it launch

and apparently as of June last year The PlayStation 4 holds a market share of at least 70% within all European countries

the XB1 is getting trounced and with how popular the 360 was there has to be a reason for so many people who were exclusive 360 gamers last gen jumped ship and we are just trying to figure it out is all by throwing up theories as to why

i say the reason was because of how they treated gamers between reveal and launch because nearly everyone i talked to about it who was 360 gamer (friends, family and work colleague) stated that as the main reason they went with a PS4, that and the cheaper price point at launch

@ShogunRok Honestly at this point it seems to have become a cultural phenomenon. Especially in the younger crowd it is the "it" piece of gaming tech and has become the "cool" console to own. Many might think this is irrelevant or stupid, but I know Sony has pushed it's marketing for this very outcome. It seems like the only thing that will slow it down now is extended amount of time and the release date of the ps5 lol.

@FullbringIchigo I honestly think a good number of those gamers who owned a 360 last gen owned a ps2 before that. Alot of these people had already dipped into Sony's stable in the past, and it was easy to come back. I think the 360 launching a year earlier and at a much lower price point allowed them to steal alot of people who owned the ps2, now they are coming back.

@get2sammyb I can see the xbox1 falling behind its predecessor, but it seems like the ps4 is on a similar path as the ps2. I think it will continue to outpace itself year over year for at least 2 more years before it shows down. The psvr may not sell a ridiculous amount of units but it will definitely help the image of the ps4 among the casual crowd as the cool, hip, and most powerful of the two consoles.