Microsoft revealed the sales numbers of the Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One at a June gaming festival in Latin America. The move was somewhat unexpected, not least becauseXbox Head Phil Spencer downplayed the importance of console salesas recently as May 2023.
The Washington-based tech giant stopped reporting its quarterly console sales numbers in October 2015, some two years after its less-than-ideal launch of the Xbox One. SinceMicrosoft recently admitted that Xbox lost the console wars, few people expected it to resume the practice.
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And while Microsoft’s recent financial reports remain free of hardware sales figures, the company has now opted to disclose its latest numbers in a more casual setting, during the second day of the 2023 Best International Games (BIG) Festival in Brazil. The largest gaming event in Latin America hence saw Microsoft reveal that theXbox Series Xand Series S currently boast over 21 million in lifetime sales, and its last two console generations sold more than 79 million units combined. This places the total sales of the Xbox One at approximately 58 million as of June 2023.
Lifetime Xbox Console Sales Numbers in June 2023
While Microsoft’s decision to publicize its hardware sales broke an eight-year precedent, the figures themselves aren’t surprising, as they are largely consistent with the latest unofficial estimates. For example, VGC reported that the Xbox Series X/S sales hit 20 million in March 2023. The official numbers also indicate that Microsoft managed to maintain its hardware momentum from 2022, when the company announced thatXbox had its best sales year ever.
And though the 21 million combined sales that the Xbox Series X/S reached in their first three years on the market is not a small figure, it’s still barely half of themassive PlayStation 5 sales that Sony reportedin Q1 2023. Likewise, the newly shared numbers also reveal that Sony and Nintendo sold just over two PS4s and Switches for every Xbox One that found an owner as of mid-2023.
This all underlines Microsoft’s aforementioned point that Xbox lost the console wars, which could have been the reason why the company suddenly opted to disclose its hardware sales numbers in the first place. Namely, Microsoft’s bluntness about how it’s trailing behind its Japanese rivals is a major part of its defense of the Activision Blizzard acquisition. The $68.7 billion deal is currently facing regulatory pushback from both sides of the Atlantic, with Microsoft positing that completing the transaction will help it close the gap with Sony and Nintendo.
