PlayStation 4 surges ahead of Xbox One, more than 50 million consoles sold

By Gabe Gurwin December 7, 2016

playstation 4 sells 50 million mil — Image used with permission by copyright holder

The PlayStation 4 has now sold more than 50 million units, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced today. The milestone comes after what the company calls its “best ever Black Friday week” in history, bolstered by the introduction of the PlayStation 4 Pro and redesigned “slim” PlayStation 4 system, and is representative of consoles sold through to consumers, and not just those purchased by retailers.

PlayStation software has also continued to sell well, with 369.6 million copies of games sold — this number includes both digital downloads and retail sales — as of December 4. This puts the average number of games per PlayStation 4 owner at about seven.

“With tremendous support from our fans and partners across the globe, this year we were able to deliver an unprecedented lineup of hardware, including the new slimmer PS4, PS4 Pro, and PlayStation VR,” said Sony Interactive Entertainment president Andrew House in a press release.

PlayStation VR is apparently not selling as well as Sony had expected, however. Though the research group SuperData previously expected the headset to move 2.6 million units by the end of the year, it has managed sales of only about 750,000: a shortfall of more than 71 percent.

The research group blamed some of this disparity on a lack of sufficient marketing, but also on supply insufficiency. The headset was sold out from virtually ever retailer just a short time after being made available for pre-order.

Back in January, Electronic Arts CFO Blake Jorgensen revealed that the PlayStation 4 had, at that point, sold 36 million units. This would put its 2016 figure at around 14 million. The Xbox One was estimated to have sold 19 million units as of January, but then outsold the PlayStation 4 in the United States for several months in a row. In November, however, the PlayStation 4 was able to dethrone Microsoft’s machine, though Microsoft stated that last month was still the “best November ever” for Xbox One.

The PlayStation 4 has certainly continued to deliver an impressive lineup of exclusive games. In addition to 2016 favorites like Uncharted 4 and Ratchet & Clank, the highly anticipated action-RPG Horizon: Zero Dawn arrives next February.

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Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

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