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New console sales data shows that Xbox had an improved Q2, while Switch has slipped since the heady days of 2021. Although both of those facts, of course, need to be taken in context for what is a very strange time for hardware sales. Data and analysis comes from Ampere Analysis.
First off, Xbox Series S and X sales are up by 16 per cent on Q1. That is largely down to greater availability of the hardware, as though retailers continue to struggle to maintain Series X stocks, the Series S model is becoming more widely available.
The new Xbox models have sold through 5.32m units in their first three quarters, that’s ahead of the Xbox One’s 5.1m over the same period. That doesn’t sound terribly impressive, after all the Xbox One wasn’t a standout success, but of course it’s impossible to predict how much the pandemic and other factors constrained supply, and to what extent Microsoft’s excellent backward compatibility has blunted the need for Xbox One owners to upgrade.
PlayStation by comparison has sold in 10.1m consoles by the end of June, which is a smidgen behind the PS4 figure for that same timeframe at 10.2m. A sell through of 9.57m though shows that it’s effectively selling all the stock it can produce, and that manufacturing capacity, not consumer enthusiasm is again limiting the rollout.
Moving into the Switch, the console was simply never going to match its extraordinary figures from the lockdown months of early last year. Sales for Q2 were down 18 per cent year on year, though it still managed to sell 4.2m more consoles. Cumulative sell through by the end of June was 85.8m.
Console hardware sales certainly aren’t the be all and end all of major platforms anymore, that said all three players are having a fantastic run at present and it will be intriguing to see how these figures play out over Q3 when hardware availability might finally loosen up a little, so we might get a real idea of consumer demand before an inevitable shortage once again hits retail in Q4.
