And the games continue. The back-and-forth PS4 vs. Xbox One sales results match entered its next round today when Microsoft announced is has sold more than 2 million Xbox One consoles worldwide since the system’s launch. Sony announced last week that it had sold more than 2.1 million PlayStation 4 consoles.
These two “2 million sold” announcements follow similar launch-day press releases in which both hardware manufacturers announced they had sold more than 1 million consoles in their first 24 hours of availability. Today’s news from Microsoft is timed similarly to Sony’s news, which appeared approximately two weeks after the PS4’s launch. Microsoft’s news of selling 2 million Xbox One units comes 18 days after the next-gen console shipped on Nov. 22.
Microsoft indicated that sales of Xbox One average more than 111,000 units sold per day worldwide. According to Microsoft’s announcement of Xbox One sales results, that daily average is “a record setting pace for Xbox” as a platform, and most major retailers remain sold out of Xbox One consoles.
Left out of Microsoft’s press release is the fact that the PS4 is also sold out at most major retailers. That didn’t stop the Redmond company from including a few insights from high-profile retailers, although their quotes were carefully parsed to not play favorites in the raging PS4 vs. Xbox One PR battle.
“Demand for next generation gaming continues to be very strong,” said John Love, director of video games at Amazon, in Microsoft’s statement. “At peak demand, customers were ordering the Xbox One console at over 1000 units per minute on Amazon.com.”
“The Xbox One entertainment system is one of our hottest selling products this holiday season,” said Bob Puzon, senior vice president of Merchandising at GameStop. “GameStop is experiencing high demand from our customers for this innovative console and we are working closely with Microsoft to receive more units to fulfill our customers’ holiday shopping lists.”
Walmart got in on the PR action too: “Xbox One is one of the hottest Christmas gifts this holiday season and was a top seller this Black Friday,” said Chris Nagelson, vice president of entertainment for Walmart U.S. “We are refreshing our inventory as fast as we can to ensure customers can give and receive the new console for Christmas.”
With those 2 million Xbox One consoles now in gamers’ hands, the platform has seen players unlock more than 39 million Xbox One achievements and achieve a combined Gamerscore in excess of 595 million.
It’s a good idea to regularly check the Xbox One inventory at Amazon