Half of All Xbox Series X|S Units Were Sold in the First 18 Months, While PS5 Doubled Their Sales
Mark Stanley, former Vice President of Global Expansion, Hardware, & Studios Integration at Microsoft, revealed on LinkedIn that nearly half of all Xbox Series X|S consoles were sold during the first eighteen months after launch.
According to Stanley (thanks Tech4Gamers), over 12 million consoles were sold across more than forty countries during that time. Considering the latest estimates of 27–30 million total Xbox Series X|S units sold so far, this means almost half of the total sales happened early in the console’s lifecycle.
However, by September 2022, Sony had already sold 25 million PlayStation 5 consoles — more than double Microsoft’s figures over roughly the same period. Since then, the gap has only widened.
PS5 Sales Continue to Surge Ahead
Recent estimates suggest that PlayStation 5 has now surpassed 82.5 million units sold worldwide. Meanwhile, Xbox has continued to see a steady decline in sales year after year.
Despite Microsoft’s efforts, the brand’s performance in hardware has failed to recover momentum against Sony’s dominance in the console market.
Reports indicate that 2025 was Xbox’s worst sales year ever in the UK, with similar results in other major markets. Even the strong appeal of Xbox Game Pass — once considered a major competitive advantage — hasn’t been enough to drive hardware sales.
Furthermore, Microsoft’s recent decision to drop its exclusive titles from the platform may have further hurt Xbox’s hardware strategy. Many analysts now believe the company has shifted its focus away from console sales toward promoting its broader gaming services ecosystem instead.
