Console Stock Shortages See PS5 and Xbox Sales Plummet!

With the graphics card and general hardware situation improving quite significantly over the last 6 months, you would’ve probably been forgiven for thinking that a similar trend was likely occurring with the Xbox Series X and PS5 consoles. It seems, however, that this is very much far from the case!

Following a report via GamesIndustry, comparative YOY (year on year) retail sales figures taken across Europe have shown that sales for both consoles have fallen by circa 2 million units. Put simply, despite both Microsoft and Sony claiming that production is up, it seems that the stock situation for 2022 so far may be notably worse than 2021.

PS5 and Xbox Series X Console Stock Problems Persist!

It should be noted that the figures, although taken across Europe, do not include Germany and the UK which clearly represent some of (if not the) biggest markets for the region. The retail data does, however, show that when compared to this time last year, both the PS5 and Xbox Series X have sold 2 million fewer consoles (a total drop of circa 21-22%). And as for why… Well, stock problems continue to remain the overall keyword!

While this might, therefore, sound disappointing, don’t be too disheartened just yet. Although purely my opinion, both Sony and Microsoft have both made strong overtures that the stock situation for their respective consoles should improve vastly in the run-up to Christmas. As such, it wouldn’t surprise me if there may be a little stock piling going on at the moment to hopefully, and finally, provide a total market solution before the end of the year.

Additionally, it shouldn’t be ignored that following the reveal of the PSVR2, which is expected to arrive at some point in early 2023, Sony is clearly going to both want and need a lot of PS5 consoles to presumable form some kind of bundle package.

So, overall, while this might, on the surface, sound like grim stuff, I suspect there’s a lot more going on here than might initially meet the eye. Well, let’s hope so anyway!

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!