PlayStation/Xbox/Switch Hardware Battle: 2021 Edition: FINAL RESULTS!

[PAOerfulone]

Week 9 Breakdown:

PlayStation 4: Down in all regions.

PlayStation 5: Down in Japan; Up in the United States, Europe, and the Rest of the World; Up Overall.

Xbox One: Down in all regions.

Xbox Series: Up in all regions.

Nintendo Switch: Up in all regions.

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Week 9 this year marks the very first week of March and with it the beginning of our first 5-week month of this year. And we've got quite the month ahead of us. Especially on the Nintendo side of things, but more on that later.

Sony - Now that the Japanese launch of the PS4 in 2014 has passed, its weekly sales have almost immediately dropped back down to normal levels, and as such, the PS5 went right back to its winning ways and is not cutting into the PS4's regained lead. It would seem that the Japanese launch of the PS4 only served to delay the inevitable, which is the total takeover of the PS5 as Sony continues to try and catch up with the demand of the system. And the more and more stock the PS5 receives to catch up with demand, the further in decline that the PS4 will continue to slide as this week marks the 4th week in a row that weekly sales have dropped to an all-time low. For comparison's sake, the PS3 didn't sink to the mid-low 40k levels until summer of 2014. At this rate, the PS4 sales may drop to half that mark. This is shaping up to be the brutal beginning of an anticlimactic end to a system that was once unstoppable. Instead of going out with a bang, it's going out with a whimper.

Microsoft - The Xbox Series adds another win in its column and continues to build on its lead over the Xbox One. As Microsoft continues to catch up with demand of THEIR newest system, they can take great joy in the fact that this continues to show how they've come leaps and bounds from where they were last gen after that disastrous reveal and the negative impact it had on its first year, and ultimately, lifetime sales. Speaking of which, if you thought the PS4's weekly baseline now was bad, imagine the Xbox One's. Yikes. Sales are less than half of what the 360's sales in 2014 were at this point in time. At this rate, the Xbox One will just barely make it past 50 million, and not much more. Microsoft certainly is chomping at the bit to put the Xbox One era behind them.

Nintendo - Another week, another monstrous outing for the Nintendo Switch which is clicking on all cylinders just three weeks before the launch of its biggest 3rd party game to date, and depending on what the rest of year has in store, their biggest release of 2021. Going back to my point earlier about this month. It was this around this time last year when COVID had spread overseas and not long after, sent the entire world into full lockdown and the pandemic officially began. Now here we are, one year later, we are STILL in said pandemic, but now we are FINALLY starting to see the end in sight. What does that mean for the Switch in particular? Simply put, with the lockdowns going into effect and everyone forced to stay indoors, they needed something to pass all that time. And there were two forms of media that fit that bill to a tee: Streaming and video games. And it just so happened that the Switch was the #1 system at the time and not long after, Animal Crossing: New Horizons released and BOOM! Like a stick of dynamite, sales absolutely exploded and the weekly baseline ascended to an-absolute-other level. The first week of March 2020 was the LAST TIME the Switch had a week with sales below 300k. All of that is going to make the rest of the year after this month an EXTREMELY difficult battle for 2021 to overcome. And that test starts with this month when Animal Crossing and Monster Hunter go head-to-head.