Xbox has been PlayStation’s direct competitor for gaming consoles. Both companies have been at it since the original Xbox console was released during the sixth generation of consoles. Recently, Microsoft has been more or less beaten by Sony’s PlayStation 5 in sales, per the popular video gaming statistics website VGChartz. In terms of sales, PlayStation holds a massive lead, based on estimations by experts who publish reports on the website.
While PlayStation and Nintendo reveal their official sales numbers, Xbox takes a different approach. The gaming giant, which owns more than 23 gaming studios, has stopped releasing official sales numbers since 2015. Recently. Xbox’s Finance Chief, Tim Stuart, has shared the rationale behind keeping the sales numbers in the dark.
Microsoft’s Explanation for Not Releasing Xbox Sales Statistics
At the Wells Fargo TMT Summit, CFO Tim Stuart talked about the advent of AI and its impact on the gaming industry on the developer’s end. He also spoke about how it changes the consumer experience. Talking about the decision not to reveal official sales figures, Stuart said:
About six or seven years ago, we stopped giving console volume externally… At first it was like, ‘What are you doing?’ ‘You’re the Xbox business and you’re not giving us console [sales statistics] that makes no sense.’
Justifying the decision, Stuart revealed that it was made to reinforce that the Xbox brand focuses on its consumers’ satisfaction and content quality. Sharing some insights about the brand strategy, Stuart said that the KPI for the brand is “more customers spending more money.”
CEO Phil Spencer backed up the company like he should have a few months ago. The CEO said this at Gamescom 2023:
The critical thing we look at at Team Xbox in terms of our success is how many players. How many players do we have? And even more and more, how much are people playing?
When it comes to sales, Microsoft has already admitted defeat in terms of sales. It had admitted that it had lost the “console wars.” The statement was made when the trial for Microsoft’s acquisition of Actiision-Blizzard was still in progress. The trial, which later turned out to be in Microsoft’s favor, saw it acquire Activision-Blizzard for 69 billion US dollars.
At the same time, console sales are a good indicator of how the public perceives a platform, determining market sentiment and share. Xbox’s decision not to reveal official numbers seems like an approach to cover up the sales gap between it and the PlayStation 5. This has happened despite the Xbox Series X being the most powerful console to date, at least on paper.
On the other hand, the Series S provides budget gamers access to the next generation of gaming by coming at a smaller price tag while sacrificing performance. But the quality of exclusive titles offered by PlayStation is much better. Also, better immersion with the DualSense and PSVR2 and the trust factor, fortified by the PlayStation 4, certainly make for a more compelling argument for most.
The numbers mentioned on websites like VGChartz are based on estimations and extrapolations. While the sales numbers of other gaming giants like Sony and Nintendo are officially revealed, Xbox seems to be taking a different approach. In all fairness, the reason isn’t all that convincing and asks more questions than it answers. It feels like a decision was made to dismiss the apparent shortcomings in equalizing the PlayStation 5 in terms of sales.
Despite the statement, which doesn’t seem to answer why Xbox stopped revealing sales, the argument that the sales numbers do not decide everything isn’t entirely baseless. For example, the Game Pass is the most valuable proposition of an Xbox console.
There is no sugarcoating the fact that Microsoft is undoubtedly not doing very well in sales compared to the mighty PlayStation 5. But it is also not a secret that PlayStation’s answer to the Game Pass, the PlayStation Plus, costs more and offers no day-one releases and a limited library. Microsoft’s strategy is certainly not as simple as maximizing sales, as revealed above. And now, after acquiring Activision-Blizzard, things might finally start looking up for Xbox.
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