I'm guessing PS3 will be ahead of Xbox360 in worldwide sales by Christmas 2012

 Level 10

by Colin Moriarty

This month, the PlayStation 3 turns five. Having sold 55.5 million units worldwide since its launch (according to Sony's most recent numbers), the PlayStation 3 isn't living up to the unreal sales numbers of the PlayStation (102 million units sold since 1994) or PlayStation 2 (153 million units sold 2000), but it's holding its own against its closest rival, and, according to the numbers, will eventually outsell Xbox 360. 

Xbox 360 launched a year earlier than PlayStation 3. It has sold 57.6 million units worldwide according to Microsoft's most recently released numbers. PlayStation 3 is 2.1 million units behind Xbox 360 in units sold, but it's also been on the market for a year less time than its primary competition. 

IGN PlayStation Celebrates Five Years of PlayStation 3

If you average out worldwide units sold per month of each console, the numbers favor Sony. Over its lifetime of 72 months on the market, Xbox 360 is averaging about 800,000 units sold per month. Over 60 months on the market, PlayStation 3 is averaging 925,000 units sold per month. 

Based solely on averages, if you were to remove Xbox 360's year head start, 57.6 million units sold becomes 48 million units sold. If you were to give PlayStation 3 12 more months to sell, paralleling Xbox 360's lifecycle, PS3's 55.5 million units becomes 66.6 million units sold. 

Xbox 360 is certainly outselling PlayStation 3 in North America, but Europe is a Sony stronghold, and Xbox 360 support in Japan is essentially non-existent. When you take worldwide sales as a whole into account, PlayStation 3 is on a clear trajectory to ultimately overtake Xbox 360 in sales, possibly as soon as next year. 

Underestimated.

This isn't an article designed to incite the passions of fanboys and loyalists (though it most certainly will). Rather, this article's goal is to simply point out an oft-overlooked fact about the sales parity between the two HD twins. 

There are a number of opinions on why the gap is rapidly closing. PlayStation 3 has many more exclusive games than Xbox 360 and a free online service. One could easily use the old fallback that Xbox 360's insanely high failure rate earlier in its lifecycle contributed to more consoles being sold. But frankly, that's all conjecture. 

The only fact is that you can't ignore the numbers. 


Colin Moriarty is an editor of IGN PlayStation. You can find him on Twitter.

Thanks for the link, and you make a lot of good points, with the 360 having a full year head start the PS3 is doing well to be so close. It is however nowhere near the level of PS and PS2.

One of the guys in te video mentioned the $600 launch price, and he was right. I think if it had come out at a beter price, it could have another 5-10 million units sold. Not that Sony lost these sales beacuse of the price, but as a result of lost momentum over the last 5 years as a result of a slow start.

This article could be a forum post XD.

The gap's been "rapidly" closing for years now :)

wasnt 360 10 million ahead at one time? either way its mighty impressive theres no way microsoft or nintendo could have launched at 599 and compete, just thinking back what could have been if ps3 launched at 299 sony lost it this gen due to price.

if next gen they launch 299 and after a couple of years get to 199 then they will be number 1 again imo

I never doubted this for a second, the question was never if PS3 would outsell the xbox, the question was rather WHEN it would outsell it, looks like that magic time is quickly coming towards us.

I think lifetime sales for PS3 will be around 100 million. 15 million this year, another 15 million next fiscal year with a pricecut sub 200 euros. And then sell for another 3-4 years with PS4 on the market.

Yep, exactly. They wouldve been the next Sega, only Sony couldve pulled it off and they have.

Agreed the gaps always been closing NA will always be a Microsoft stronghold their brand loyalty is strong and doesn't look to be slowing that much at all, as for the rest of the world Microsoft generally don't have the reputation that Sony hold, the lack of Xbox live support for some countrys in europe didn't help there cause either.

The PS3 was never going to sell as well as the PS2 especially with the Wii launching to a good reception and dominating the market early on. I would say they will pull ahead this time next year assuming there is no price cuts to current models or either console if one were to lower the price i would say the other would follow suit very quickly

One of the arguments I have already found the silliest is the 1 year head start argument. Prior to 360 launch and all through that 1st year plus the media and community over and over talked about how the 360 was dead on arrival. How many Dreamcast 2 articles were written? They werent praising the Dreamcast by the way in those articles they were talking about how the PS3 will just kill the 360 like the PS3 killed the Dreamcast. Remember Sony saying the next generation doeskin start until Sony says it does. That 1st year wasn't a launch of the 360 it was supposed to be a slow death until the PS3 launches. Press and customers had written off the 360 before it even launched. So that 1st year head start didn't equate to much. There was the 360 launched already and clearly in the shadows of the monolith which was the pending launch of the PS3.

Then Sony blew it.
Bad E3 showing in 2006 after a E3 in 2005 which in retrospect was all about saying 360 bad, PS3 good.
Launching at a price above even the highest estimates.
System software that was incomplete.
Poor launch titles.
Core brand titles not expected for years.

Just imagine if the PS3 launched for a cheaper price, wasnt delayed in Europe for 6 months and had great third party support from the start. Mad respect for Sony supporting the PS3 and always Make.Believing.

E3 2005 was great, I still miss the time machine feature and 7th Dimension in the PS3 but they can work on it with fw updates lol