Phil Spencer Discusses Xbox Series X|S Sales, Over 12 Million Reportedly Shipped So Far

For a change I shall bring positive news.
UK for the month of December console sales.
Switch consoles first
Series consoles second
PS5 consoles third
Fair play Xbox and credit where it’s due, they really did stock some series x into shops in December before and just after Christmas.
Would be interesting to have the series s/x split but I guess we won’t get that info.
It is hard to get UK sales separately as we get put in with the Europe usually.

And just to be my normal annoying self.
Don’t tell me consoles sales don’t matter to Phil and the team, as consoles sell games and game pass.
I think this report points that out well.
Consoles sales and every sale of an Xbox product physical or digital matter.

Only good news that it's doing well

Interesting to see, and these 12m shipped aren't languishing on the shelves either. With the strong improvement in sales in Japan is seems Xbox is of to a strong start, and there's enough demand for all the consoles.

@Medic_Alert
I do wish for the day where we have one console that plays all games on day of release be it
Mario, Master Chief or Aloy etc.
what a day in gaming history that would be.
All games all console or consoles.

For the first time ever this gen I saw a S, a X and a PS5 on the shelf in a shop for the first time last week. Didn't last long though. After being asked to grab a X or PS5 for someone (Either one they could get) I returned the next day and all were gone. When I asked the sales guy just looked at me and shock his head asking why I walk past them if I wanted one? I think this is going to be a giant generation for consoles. Most people are looking for both this Gento get GamePass and Sony exclusives.

Awesome to see Xbox doing so good..

That’s amazing news! Puts it on par with the PS5 I think? Or within a couple of million.

That's about 10 million below OG Xbox's lifetime sales, not bad. I'm also one of the 12 million and I gotta say that Series X is a good system, even if I only just found out og Skyrim is unplayable on it. Think of us cheapskates, MS!

@Rural-Bandit
We must have good strong competition.
Smart delivery is good.
Was a nightmare on PS5 at the beginning but they have made it easy now with updates, you just choose what one to download and it’s how’s up when you go over the game cover on dashboard now.

Game save and cloud save is perfect on Xbox and pain in arse on PS5 especially if others log in and play on your PS5 even if console sharing is on, Sony the tight gits don’t let the others save games to cloud.
But an Xbox home console all those logged into your console get cloud saves.

Backwards compatibility, free automatic cloud saves and Game Pass are three very strong selling points. None of that is available on PS5 nor Switch. The Series X is also technically the best hardware of the generation and more compact than PS5, that's another strong selling point compared to the original Xbox One that was bigger, less powerful and more expensive although much more silent and better built than PS4. Series X has it all.

I like Phil a lot, but that's a misleading presentation. If his argument is that supply is the same as past gens, but demand has outstripped it, but he's counting supply as Series S + Series X, that means there's not the same amount of Series X as there was X1 or X360, and it's beyond clear that there's far more Series S available than X, and Series S hasn't been particularly strapped for meeting demand compared to Series X and PS5, so, yes, supply of the Series X product (and presumably PS5 product) is indeed below what it normally would be. Considerably so.

I've read some comments suggesting that PS5 is selling more than double than Series X/S but it's just not true. PS5 shipped 13.4 million as of September 30, 2021 and Series X/S shipped over 12 million as of January 11, 2022.

@Rural-Bandit PS5 reminds of the original Nintendo DS. After the slick GBA SP, the original Nintendo DS was like a laptop from the 80s. PS5 is like an oversized router from the 90s with an afterthought hump for the disc slot. I think that the original PS4 was much better designed and also nicer than the PS4 Pro that looks like a fat burger version of the PS4.

@Dezzy70 On XB, cloud saves aren't locked behind the paywall at all, everybody gets it, with or without Gold (that was a post-Matrick salvaging freebie, originally it was locked.) On PS and Nintendo it's behind the paywall, so only the paying customer gets to do it.

Although on XB the Gold sub applies to the whole console, and apparently doesn't on PS. Another difference is on XB anyone logged in can download games you own and play them. On PS, anyone can play them, but you have to log into your account to download them, other's can't see them as downloadable.

@NEStalgia It looks like he just wanted to say that it's the fastest-selling Xbox console ever.

@NEStalgia
Correct I use that Xbox feature all the time for family to have cloud saves and it works so spot on and seemless with whoever is logged in.
I don’t understand why Sony don’t follow suit and do the same.

@NEStalgia
At least with Nintendo if you have family online account like me on the Switch you all get cloud saves.
On PS5 each person has to have their own PSN paid account to get cloud saves.

@Rural-Bandit
Yes Xbox has the better and more user friendly customer system and console for sure.
They just need more top end AAA games for me.
Yes I have an LG C1 as well now. No screen tearing from series x but some third party games, farcry 6 for example screen tear on PS5, which is a poor show and VRR would get rid of.

@Banjo- Maybe, but it's awkward for him to be saying there's not a shortage of consoles, when there's absolutely a shortage of the main console, but an abundance of the budget model. Makes it sounds like supply is normal and demand is just so exceptional. That's Sony verbiage.

@Dezzy70 Like with Nintendo, they're making money hand over fist, why change it? MS would still be doing it the Sony way if they weren't trying to find olive branches after the X1 launch failed.

Nintendo is so weird because they're so money grubbing but then sell that weird one size fits all 8 person package that's technically a great value....if you have 8 people using it. And so ripe for abuse.

@Dezzy70
Agreed console sales do matter to a point. But, that is not the measure of financial or gaming success. It is a false belief that console sales are everything. Would you as a console vendor prefer to sell 30 mln consoles and have every one of those console selling 10 games + royalties, and 25 mln paid subscriptions or would you prefer to sell 100 mln consoles each yielding 3 game sales and 10 mln paid subscriptions?

Yes, console sales are important, but also capturing the right market of gamers that buy both games and subscriptions is more important.

Enjoying my series x and ps5, congratulations to both companies on their continued success and long may it continue!

@Dezzy70 we do its called a PC

As a long time PlayStation fan Gamepass and Microsoft rewards was just too great a value proposition to turn down. rewards pays for Gamepass they are effectively paying me to play their console.

I will get a slim/pro ps5 when all the exclusives are out no rush

@Rural-Bandit I have a Series X and find it to be a good compact design. My brother in law has a PS5, I got him an SSD drive for it for Christmas and Installed it for him, and I have to say hands on with the PS5 it does feel and look a big bulky machine. Overly big IMO. Still I think the PS5 interface is nice and slick.

@Dezzy70 That would be a real pitty.
The different platforms have their own strengths and I say viva the difference!
MS have been creative with subscription models and cloud gaming.
Sony have been creative with haptics and now a proper vr.
Nintendo have also always been creative with hardware.

Different features and objectives mean the games have specific flavours, and I think the world is better off for the diversity.

Its all subjective though, and many might not agree of course!
It would certainly be cheaper! As someine running a 3090 pc, a series x, 2 ps5s and a switch, i can testify its expensive to keep all options open...

@Titntin
I get what you saying like there might have not been say a switch hybrid if it was all one console.
Yes it is expensive having all the consoles and a top spec pc.

Awesome news

@Rural-Bandit
Yes the new Sony OLED from CES is supposed to come with VVR out the box, no update that never arrives like last years OLED so far.
Will be interesting if the PS5 gets VRR.
Sony are the worst when it comes to tv and blu ray updates, so I’m not holding my breath for the PS5 VRR update, but surely they will do it, it may not be Sonys fault but we can screen tearing on big third party games in 2021/2022.
It slightly spoilt far cry 6 for me so I went and got far cry 6 on series x and perfect.
I know but I must have the best and I really hate screen tearing.

The reason LG and Samsung get VRR so easy is they make and use their own SOC for their TVs.
Sony buy a meditek off the shelf one that makes life a lot harder.

PlayStation will still sell more consoles this generation, I have to agree but already I can see a slight turn to Xbox already and fair play to them.

@Rural-Bandit
See if you follow Sony I like do there tv, blu ray business are a bit arrogant, especially with the whole low latency Dolby vision and VRR thing, some of that lead over the years them ending up third in the tv market behind Samsung and LG.

I think a little went through into the PS3 era.
They totally corrected it for the PS4.
However I slightly see it again with PS5
Big console, no very easy ssd memory upgrade
Bad start UI Wise, took off everything about the PS4 UI that was good.
No smart delivery, No VRR.

They a dam strange company Sony and almost consumer wise self harming.

Great to hear its doing well, love our little S sitting between its 2 towering brothers! Well worth it for GP alone.

@Dezzy70 while I do agree with a lot of that, the ssd upgrade is ridiculously easy on the PS5, just as simple if not moreso than the 3/4. Takes less than 5 mins start to finish.

@Dezzy70 HDMI 2.0 into HDMI 2.1 is a total joke, full stop. The wheels fell off the bus on HDMI a long time ago. Most of the implmimented features are a buggy, inconsistent mess that only works when mars is aligned with venus during a blood moon, the cabling can't handle distance runs of any sort, the incompatibility of components with different feeds, where every device runs at it's own voltage levels of its chosing, with different standards for powering the port (Sony always, always sends low voltage signal that other devices read as "off", Xbox keeps the port always polling (so auto switchers don't work), different switchers having different standards "Supports HDR 4k at 60fps (at only 4:2:2 color....)"), and the whole ARC and CEC mess that works reliably 80% of the time, only if the devices are the same manufacturer made around the same time.

It's a "standard" that allows every vendor to define the standard for themself. It's no wonder things like VRR don't work. They never actually will, reliably. It'll work between a certain set of components, most of the time, but I don't think we'll ever see HDMI be a plug and play reliable protocol. We need a new protocol but that will suck, too, because then everything will be incompatible with each other for another decade. But HDMI is already pushing more bandwidth than is practical to do through its cabling. Even if we stick with HDMI, the next version will require all new connections and heavier wiring to work at all, at which point, why keep HDMI going?

@Rural-Bandit Sony operates in a vacuum between its departments. Sometimes that's a good thing. I don't think we'd see PSVR2 happening if PS HQ was actually organized with hardware HQ. Vita may not have happened at all, either. But other times.... there was the story last year that the guy (in Japan) that designed the PS5 actually designed it LARGER(!) Then took it to the hardware team and found out that the electronics didn't need anywhere near the space he had and was asked to shrink it, and that behemoth is what resulted. The original must have looked like a mini ATX tower. But that's Sony in a nutshell. Some guy in Tokyo is told to design a new console chassis. He hits CAD and comes up with what he thinks is the ideal statement piece of form and function. THEN finds out what's actually going inside it and that it doesn't actually require a giant PC tower. Then just shrinks it a bit. They just have different groups working on different things, then glue it together later on.

But sometimes cool things come out of that approach because the pipeline from "the suits" to "the doers" is permanently severed

Other times you end up with PSP Go, or TVs with advertised features that will never be patched in.

@NEStalgia
Well HDMI 2:1 works with every single device I have through my LG C1 tv.
Some of it depends how good the companies designers and firmware engineers are.
But LG TV wise HDMI 2:1 not a single issue have I had with my connected devices.
My whole entertainment centre and consoles love the LG C1 and it’s HDMI 2:1 connection.
Well done LG for teaching especially Sony tv how things are done correctly.

Wish they would get that Limited Run partnership going for Death's Door and a bunch of other indies. I just splurged on 5 new disk based games (3 that exist on Gamepass) and absolutely love the look of the collection. Wish they'd properly load content onto them as well instead of downloading 80% of the game to the SDD.

Good, now we actually have real numbers to compare. Rather than just assuming PS5 is outselling Xbox 2-1 or whatnot, and then taken as fact (man people are gullible lol)
On a happy note, I finally got a Series X last week😁

@redd214
Yes we can do it easy and so can some
A lot of general public cannot.
And the time will come when some start asking me what to buy and do it for them.
Or Sony will sell PS5 with say 1.5gb and crazy general public will buy a new one. 😂

@PhileasFragg
We'll see how it plays out longterm but the combination of Series S and Game Pass may be what MS needed to crack the Japanese market. I'm not saying it will catch PlayStation, certainly won't do what Nintendo is doing, but 360 was, compared to how other American consoles sold in Japan, a pretty big success and if the Series line surpasses that, it's only a good thing for the future of Xbox.

@Dezzy70 my 11 year old did it. If someone has enough knowledge to know how/which one to buy I'm sure they have enough common sense to look up instructions and follow a 2 min YouTube tutorial.

Anywho, better for all of us these things are selling as well as they are!

@Banjo- PS5 has cloud saves an more back compatible games than Xbox!!

@sjbsixpack I didn't say that PS5 doesn't have cloud saves, I said that PS5 doesn't have free cloud saves. Also, PS5 doesn't have any backwards compatibility except for PS4.

@Gamer83 not buying that my friend - the figures from Japan show that MS sold just under 100k series machines last year and PS5 sold 1 million. Both of them absolutely dwarfed by Switch of course, but that's still a 10 to 1 advantage last year for Sony.

If anything I'd say the sales figures show that Series S and games pass have not made much difference in Japan?

Definitely good news, and considering the fact that nothing stays in stock for very long the actual sales are pretty much 12 mil as well.

@sjbsixpack sorry but I'm a big PlayStation fan and this is way off and just stinks of fanboyism. Why even make this comment? All those games are great that much we agree on but your comments are just stupid. The numbers might work in your favour now that Sony are offering backwards compatability for PS4 games so yes you "technically" have a point but Xbox does backwards compatability so much better. People like you fuel arguments where there isn't one and to be honest you just p**s general gamers off with your pathetic devotion to a brand that quite frankly doesn't give a ***** about you.

Xbox users get to carry some of their older libraries over. Unfortunely for me mine are all locked into the old PS gens with the exception of the PS4 so I cannot play my old stuff. That's the selling point for Xbox Backwards Compatability.

@Alpha_Pulse i’m no fanboy, i av both PS5 an XSX. An Switch an Oculus too! I only stated a fact. He was bashin PS over backwards compatibility. PS has more backwards games than Xbox. If ya really wanna play PS1, 2 an 3 games they’re on PS now.

@Alpha_Pulse Thanks, I couldn't have said it better.

I'm not big on console sales figures, as it mainly leads to unnecessary console wars, but I will give credit where it's due. Xbox is doing a great job so far.

Keep up the great work Microsoft. The Series consoles have been killing it.

The rumors about "PS5 outselling Series X 2:1!!!!" are officially dead. And good riddance. Console war toxicity has been especially insufferable this gen.

@DevinRex how av i lost? What i said is fact. There are more backwards compatible games on PS5 than Xbox. PS exclusives are deemed the best games. Fanboys are people who post none facts to big up their console of choice. PS an Xbox both have fanboys.