PS4 And Xbox One Sales Declining Faster Than Expected In US; Switch Remains Steady

We’re nearing the end of this generation of consoles’ lifespan. While games for the PS4 and Xbox One will continue to come out after this Holiday (and, of course, the Switch), the focus is going to switch pretty dramatically when the PS5 and Xbox Series X launches. So, naturally, there will be somewhat of a decline in sales of those systems, but it seems that decline is much more than normal.

As detailed by Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad (known in a lot of circles as Zhuge), the decline is much steeper than the PS3 and 360 in the same time period when examining the latest NPD report. Nintendo’s Switch, however, is remaining steady despite that. There are, of course, several factors at play here.

As Ahmad continues, one part is that we know far more about the PS5 and Series X than we did about the PS4 and One relative to the time frame. This time pre-reveal on current systems we basically knew nothing about them, where as now we’ve had an official reveal for the Series X and a steady stream of PS5 news. The price point on current systems have stayed far steadier than the PS3 and 360 which saw a much bigger range of price cuts. Nintendo’s continued success is also probably due to the Switch being newer than both Sony and Microsoft’s current hardware, and catering to the market in a much different way than either of them.

Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X will launch this Holiday season.

An interesting takeaway from the US NPD report is that PS4 and XB1 hardware sales in Jan 2020 are considerably lower than PS3 and 360 were in Jan 2013.

Next gen consoles are around the corner but both are declining sharper than expected.

Switch continues to remain steady. https://t.co/tBfiJVvJRd

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) February 14, 2020

It's a combination of multiple factors.

PS4 and XB1 have both held at current price points for a number of years.

Impact of early announcements for PS5/XSX with BC.

Shift to HD gaming across multiple devices.

Delays in key titles planned for 2020.

etc…

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) February 14, 2020