The next-generation console war has officially begun, in the US and a few other countries. The Xbox Series X and Series S went on sale on November 10 internationally and the PS5 has gone on sale in the US only on November 12. Globally, the PS5 will go on sale on November 19. Countries like India have official pricing for Sony’s console but no release date yet. Even though the Xbox Series X is sold out in India, the Series S it is still available online as of writing this article.
Xbox head, Phil Spencer tweeted, “Thank you for supporting the largest launch in Xbox history. In 24 hrs more new consoles sold, in more countries, than ever before. We’re working with retail to resupply as quickly as possible. You continue to show us the connective power of play is more important than ever.”
https://twitter.com/XboxP3/status/1326693095954550784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
As we can see from the tweet above, more Xbox consoles sold in more countries than ever before seems to be a given since we haven’t really seen a worldwide launch for a gaming console on a single day. However, one thing to note is that number of consoles sold worldwide has not been shared.
While Microsoft’s next-gen gaming machine is available globally, what it lacks are any AAA exclusives to make the console more enticing. However, with backwards compatibility and Game Pass, the barrier for entry to play AAA games is much cheaper and makes the console an enticing option especially in a country like India where the console is more expensive than its international price.
Microsoft stopped sharing the number of consoles sold during the Xbox One era because of the lead Sony had with the PS4. Sony has sold around 113 million consoles during the PS4 lifecycle and it will be interesting to see how many Xbox Series consoles and PS5 consoles have sold worldwide during the launch period.