State of the race: PS4 takes sizeable lead ahead of Xbox One in 2013 sales
As we enter the new year, reports suggest that the PS4 has taken a commanding lead in UK sales.
According to a report by MCV, last year (that’s what it is now), the PS4 sold 530,000 units – compared to only 364,000 Xbox One sales. That puts the PS4 166,000 ahead. Which as this is UK only – is fairly considerable for our small isle, and more importantly a 45%ish lead in sales.
What’s particularly interesting about this though is that the Xbox One also had a week’s head start – released in the UK on November 22nd (with the worldwide release), compared to November 29th for the PS4. (In America, it was the other way around, with the PS4 hitting shelves a week ahead of the One).
Though whether we can read too much into this remains to be seen. Given the scarcity of both consoles in the run-up to Christmas, it could be that they’ve simply sold to the maximum production capacity – who knows, if they’d cranked out a few more Xboxes, would we be reporting the Xbox One was the current victor? (As we understand it, there’s plenty of WiiU left on the shelves…)
Similarly, it’s also worth viewing this in the context of early adopters being the people who will have been most interested in the ‘politics’ of gaming – and crucially, Microsoft’s disastrous E3, which pushed many people into the Playstation camp. But as time goes on, that’s nothing a gigantic Microsoft marketing budget probably can’t fix.
So there’s plenty left to play for!
