PS5 Sold 10 Times The Number Of Xbox Series Consoles In Japan Last Year
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Featured Image Credit: Martin Katler via Unsplash, Billy Freeman via Unsplash
Ooh look, it’s more data to remind us that despite what the availability in stores and online would suggest, PS5s are, in fact, being sold, and in very high numbers. And again, despite all that, I’m still not one of the lucky ones who own one. Yes, I’m salty, but can you blame me? I don’t think so.
Anyway, sales numbers in Japan, courtesy of Famitsu, have shown that the PS5 had a really great year last year. To be precise, it sold 942,798 units during the course of 2021, which is pretty impressive when you consider both the stock shortages (which are still showing absolutely no signs of stopping) and the fact that Japan is very much Nintendo’s territory when it comes to sales.
A lot of people around the world are still struggling to get hold of PS5s, thanks to both stock issues and scalpers.
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To put that alongside the numbers for the other consoles on the market, the Switch unsurprisingly topped the charts at 5.3 million units sold (up from 5.1 million in 2020), which might make the PS5’s efforts seem slightly measly in comparison. However, when you look at the figures for the Xbox Series X and S, it starts to look significantly chunkier.
Xbox consoles only sold 95k units in Japan throughout 2021, making them about 10 times less popular than the PS5. In actual fact, they even sold less than the PS4, which managed to pull off 103K sales. I almost feel a little bit bad.
Famitsu reported on the 2021 total sales of all the systems:
— Stealth (@Stealth40k) January 6, 2022
Switch - 5.3m (2020 was 5.1m)
PS5 - 942k
PS4 - 103k
Xbox Series - 95k
From 2017 to 2021, Switch has sold more and more every single year in Japan. There has been no decline ever.
The Xbox has historically never really managed to take off in the Japanese market, so these figures aren’t super surprising, but you can’t deny that they’re still pretty wild. Again, obviously the stock shortages will have an impact on sales, and the Switch is a lot easier to get hold of than the new-gen consoles. It’ll be interesting to see what happens in times to come when the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S become more readily available, although if the past is anything to go by, chances are that the popularity rankings will basically remain the same.
Topics: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PlayStation, Xbox