The stock shortage, which can be traced back to the microchip shortage of 2020, continues to plague the PlayStation 5, as well as other consoles such as the Nintendo Switch and Xbox Series S/X. However, even though Nintendo Switch has had more time to ramp up its production given it’s been on the market since 2018, it seems like the PS5 is still king. At least, that’s what GamesIndustry.biz editor Christopher Dring revealed on Twitter.
People continue to snap up PS5 as soon as they’re available
According to Christopher Dring, the PlayStation 5 is “comfortably” outselling all other consoles in the United Kingdom, at the moment. Dring didn’t exactly have any sales figures to back up his statement. However, he did add that the Nintendo Switch was in second place, followed by the Xbox Series S/X. Also, the overall sales for all the video game consoles in the United Kingdom are up 25% when compared to last year, after having already hit one million months before the holiday season. This suggests that business is booming, so to speak, on the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X, and Nintendo Switch. What is most interesting here is that while the PS5 and Xbox Series S/X continue to sell like hotcakes in the United Kingdom, as well as other parts of the globe, both consoles are hard to come by. The PS5, especially, is often bought by scalpers as soon as they are available only to be resold at a higher price for profit. When you consider the sales figures of the PS5 right now, you can’t help but wonder just how much more it would sell if Sony were able to keep up with the demand.
Why is the Xbox Series X not outselling the PS5?
Sony’s PlayStation branding has afforded it what’s essentially free marketing. In terms of availability and games, the Xbox Series S/X should be outselling the PS5. Instead, what’s happening is that people are still waiting in the proverbial (and sometimes literal) line for the PS5 even though there is an Xbox Series S/X available for them to buy. It’s difficult to pinpoint a reason why the Xbox Series S/X isn’t selling as well as the PS5. It’s not that it’s hard to sell either. It’s the most powerful console in the world right now. Plus, there’s the Xbox Game Pass, which, as per E3 2021, will routinely see at least one game be added to its library at launch every month for the foreseeable future. It should be win-win for Xbox fans regardless. The sheer number of games that you can play on the Xbox Series S/X with the Xbox Game Pass is staggering, to say the least. While it’s true that Sony will always have the upper hand in terms of exclusives, you would at least expect people to consider getting an Xbox Series S/X because of how many more games they can play on Microsoft’s next-gen console. The simple answer here is that some people might really just prefer buying the PlayStation 5 even though the Xbox Series X has the better value proposition. What’s not so easy to work out is why this is the case. But, then again, who’s complaining? The more that the Xbox Series S/X plays second if not third fiddle on the console market, the more reasons that Microsoft will have to improve its games library.
