Although we won’t know the exact numbers of next-gen consoles sold this holiday season until early next year, Microsoft today confirmed that it has sold 2 million Xbox One units around the world in its first 18 days. Microsoft went on to note that the sales numbers are units sold though to customers, not just shipped, and that most retailers are completely sold out.
“We continue to be humbled and overwhelmed by the positive response from our fans. We are thrilled to see sales of Xbox One on a record-setting pace, with over 2 million Xbox One consoles in homes around the world,” Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president of strategy and marketing, said. “Demand is exceeding supply in our 13 launch markets and Xbox One is sold out at most retailers.”
It is looking more and more like Microsoft’s biggest challenge with selling the Xbox One through the holiday season will simply be keeping up with the demand. That’s a very good problem to have. The Xbox One sold over 1 million units worldwide in its first 24 hours, and since its launch has averaged 111,111 units sold per day.
We won’t know the exact sales numbers until Microsoft’s quarterly report is released late in January or early February; the same is true of Sony and the PlayStation 4, which has also sold over 2 million units worldwide.
Whether they say it publicly or not, Microsoft and Sony both would love to end the year outselling their rival, partly for pride and partly to tout it to their investors. At the moment though, it looks like it’s a dead heat. The “winner” may simply be the company that can supply more consoles.
