Even though Microsoft themselves don’t share numbers for Xbox One sales anymore, it has been easy to guess at how the console is doing thanks to a whole lot of ancillary sources and data that we can put together, as well as the general understanding that the PS4 outdoes the Xbox One 2:1. Because of that, it has been generally assumed the Xbox One is currently at 33-35 million units sold worldwide.
However, now, new numbers shared by EA- who, along with other third party publishers, are one of the sources we ely on to derive information about Xbox One sales- indicate that the console’s sales at the end of last year may have been below even 30 million. EA estimated that 103 million units of PS4 and Xbox One put together had been sold by December 31 2017 (via DualShockers)- given that we know that the PS4 was at 73.5 million units at that date, that puts the Xbox One at 29.5 million units, which is shockingly low. It puts the console between the GameCube and the N64. In fact, it even puts the Switch on a fast track to exceed Xbox One sales very soon, in spite of only having launched last year.
Speaking of the Switch, EA estimates that its sales will top 30 million by the end of the calendar year- which sounds impressive, but would actually mean the Switch is underperforming, since Nintendo wants the total sales of the console to be at 38 million worldwide by March 31 2018, meaning they would have to sell 8 million consoles in the three slowest months of the year. Which… isn’t happening.
How correct these numbers are remains to be seen (the Xbox One numbers most definitely contradict numbers we have from analysts and similar sources, all of which place the console at 33-35 million, while projections for Xbox One, PS4, and Switch for sales this year all seem to be wrong)- but one thing is clear. The Xbox One has very notably underperformed.