Genuine question.

Having shipped numbers is easy but how do they obtain info about the actual number of sold units?

Do retailers report back to them? Are they actively polling? Are they using established market research firms? Are they just taking the shipped numbers to retailers from before the last ordered shipment? Do they have their own big net of market researchers around the world?

We regard the numbers companies give us as the most reliable. But how can we be sure that they're not just pulling these out of their ass?

Or worse, using insiderp.

estimates from their own distribution + NPD + GFK + Enterbrain ... etc.

Retailers definitely report back to them, almost in the same way vgchartz tracks, but sony has direct 1 to 1 with retailers. Same with all publishers, tactically coordinating with retailers such as 'enable this bundle on 5th august' etc.

In Japan, they know each customer by name...

I laughed hard :D

Well, reporting false numbers as a public company can get you in hot water, so I do not doubt these companies are honest.

My guess is Sony reports only big round numbers because they are estimates. I believe they said "over 10 million" meaning they felt comfortable saying that, but not "10,132,649 units". This is likely based off shipments and percentages of shipped they sell. For example, if they've shipped 10.6 million they likely feel confident based on all data they have a 95% sell through rate then they can say "over 10 million sold".

They will have numbers from every actual tracker. NPD, gfk and MC/Famitsu.

To go along with that, in places where tracking is relatively poor or non existent, they will be able to determine sellthrough numbers by how many units they ship to the areas on a regular basis. You could probably add in the number of consoles registered online too.

All you need to know is that the gap is wider than you think.

I don't think I've ever laughed so hard on vgc.

Thank you guys, I'll be here all week...

...unless I get banned for something...