The PS4’s dominance of the console market is utter and complete, of a kind that we haven’t seen since the days of the PS2. According to a report by IHS, the PS4 held over half the global console market in 2016- 57% of the global console gaming market was held by Sony (thanks to Sony’s success with hardware, games, and services), who also saw growth in their market performance in a year when the console market overall shrunk by 2%.
The console market as worth to about $35 billion in 2016 – which is a decline over 2015, in spite of some high profile releases such as Overwatch – with the PS4 accounting for $17.8 billion of that number. The Xbox One, by contrast, had 26% of the market, with $9.1 billion in revenue.
Going forward, it will be interesting to see if Sony can maintain this level of success- this year, the PS4 has a stream of hits and high profile exclusive games. On the other hand, the launch of the Xbox One Scorpio and the Nintendo Switch may mar its success somewhat. It’s going to be an interesting time for fans of games, that’s for sure.
[IHS Markit via MCV UK]