PS5 Has Now Officially Outsold Every Xbox Console Ever Released

The PlayStation 5 is now up to 84.2 million copies sold after shifting an additional 3.9 million units during the three-month period ending September 30, Sony has announced.

That’s a slight increase on the 3.8 million PS5 units Sony sold during the same quarter last year, but it's an impressive result given the price of the console has actually gone up over the course of this generation, rather than come down.

Interestingly, the new sales figure puts PS5 ahead of every Xbox console ever released, overtaking the last official number we have for the Xbox 360. But this is somewhat misleading. Microsoft last reported an Xbox 360 sales figure over a decade ago, back in June 2014, when it said it had sold more than 84 million Xbox 360 units into retail worldwide.

It seems likely that those 84 million consoles sold into retailers were eventually sold through to customers, and that it probably sold an additional 1 million or so in the 10 years after that announcement (Microsoft discontinued the Xbox 360 in April 2016). So the true Xbox 360 sales figure is probably a little higher than the PS5’s current tally, but until Microsoft issues an official sales update for the Xbox 360, the PS5 is officially ahead of it and all other Xbox consoles. And in any case, the PS5 will go on to sell tens of millions more units over the course of its lifetime.

As an aside, unlike Sony, Microsoft does not make Xbox Series X and S sales figures public, but analysts have suggested the combined Xbox Series effort is being outsold by the PS5 by at least a factor of 2:1.

The more appropriate comparison for the PS5 then, is with its predecessor, the PlayStation 4. Five years into the current console generation, the PS5 is slightly behind the PS4 (the PS4 sold-in to retailers more than 86.1 million units after five years on sale).

But Sony has said this console generation is its most financially successful ever, with sales surpassing those made during the reign of all previous Sony consoles. In a graph recently published by Sony, its Game & Network Services (G&NS) division, which includes Sony Interactive Entertainment, was shown to have brought in more money with each console generation since the PS1. Of course, PS5 increased in price this year to $550, while PS4 retailed for $300 at this stage, and the video games themselves have got more expensive.

Nishino-san says PlayStation 5 is the most successful generation in PlayStation history. pic.twitter.com/E5feupYHGr

Sony has already started talking about PlayStation 6 in vague terms, but it has a number of PS5 exclusives yet to come, including Insomniac’s Marvel’s Wolverine, which is due out next year. There are also reports that Sony plans to release a PlayStation handheld console, although the company has yet to comment.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].