PS5 console sales are ahead of PS4 in the US, while Xbox Series console sales are lagging behind Xbox One.
This is according to Mat Piscatella, CEO and video game industry analyst at Circana (formerly NPD Group), who has summarized the latest sales data in the United States.
In the company’s latest monthly sales report, which was released this week, Piscatella noted that PS5 unit sales are now ahead of PS4 at the same point in both consoles’ life cycles.
On the other hand, Xbox Series console sales are lagging behind those of the Xbox One, which in turn lagged behind those of the PS4, highlighting the widening gap between the machines.
“Throughout the first 50 months of each console in the US market (to-date lifespan ends in December 2024 for both XBS and PS5), PS5 lifetime unit sales are 7% ahead of pace.” of PS4, while the Xbox Series lags behind the Xbox One by 18%,” Piscatella wrote. in a thread on Bluesky.
“Over 38 months in the US (through December 2023), PS5 outperformed PS4 by 6%, while XBS trailed XBO by 13%.”
In August, Sony reported that the PS5 had sold 61 million units. While Microsoft doesn’t report hardware figures, a Wall Street Journal report claimed in September that Xbox Series consoles had sold about half of what the PS5 had achieved at the time.
Piscatella reported that spending on video game hardware in December fell 29% to $1.1 billion.
“PlayStation 5 hardware spending fell 18% compared to December 2023, and Xbox Series and Switch each declined 38%. “Annual spending on video game hardware ended up 25% lower than in 2023, at $4.9 billion.”
Piscatella attributes the fact that Nintendo Switch is at the end of its life cycle as one of the factors in the decline in hardware sales. Nintendo will release its next console, the Nintendo Switch 2, this year.
Elsewhere in Circana’s data, US spending on video games decreased 1.1% in 2024 compared to 2023.
This was mainly due to a 25% drop in spending on video game hardware, because sales on content (software, DLC and subscriptions) and accessories increased by 2% and 6% respectively.