Microsoft refuses to give us any insight into how much the Xbox One has sold, choosing instead to focus on some other metrics, but at this point, we have a pretty good idea of just how Microsoft’s newest console has been doing, thanks to numbers by Microsoft’s analyst and third party partners. These analysts, whoa re often shareholders, and third party publishers, who are, in the end, responsible for putting games on the system, are made privy to information that Microsoft may not necessarily want to share with public- and sometimes, we are lucky enough to get a tidbit of information from them.
For instance, consider EA- the largest third party publisher in the world recently confirmed in an earnings call that the combined cumulative worldwide install base of the PS4 and the Xbox One was 55 million units as of December 31, 2016. Considering that the PS4 had sold 35.9 million units by this date, the Xbox One’s install base isn’t hard to calculate- it comes to 19.1 million units sold worldwide. Also, since these figures are being given by a third party, which is more concerned with active systems than with shipments, they represent sell through figures, not sell in.
19 million units sold worldwide is certainly not a bad showing from the Xbox One at all- it definitely could be doing better (currently, even the PS3’s first two years are outpacing it), but on the other hand, the Xbox One is definitely doing better than some failed systems like the Gamecube, the original Xbox, or the Wii U, with which it is so often clubbed.
With the Xbox One’s lineup this year looking very impressive, let us hope that its sales pick up accordingly as well.
[ZHugeEX]