VGChartz Sales Comparison Charts June 2022 Discussion Thread

[The_Liquid_Laser]

kenjab said:

The_Liquid_Laser said:

You must be referring to other posts I've made, because the one you replied to only has 3 sentences.  Let me clear things up.  It depends on whether you are talking console sales lifetime or console sales this year/month/week. My posts about the resale market have more to do with what is happening with console sales right now, and don't really extend past this year's sales.

If we are talking lifetime, then PS5 is not going to outsell X|S in the US.  People in the US don't really care about the PS5, and I know because I live in the US.  They care about Switch and XBox.  And we haven't even gotten to the point where PS5 and X|S have gotten next gen exclusives yet.  Once Starfield and the like start coming, then the US is going to go even more for X|S.  Microsoft is also throwing a lot of money around right now, unlike Generation 8 where they gave up early and still did fairly well in the US.

Playstation is not a strong brand in the US.  It hasn't been strong since PS2.  It just doesn't have a chance against XBox in the US this generation, especially with Microsoft throwing around all of this money.

I mean, come on man.  There's plenty of data that shows these statements are objectively false.  Playstation is still tremendously popular to plenty of Americans, especially in the 18-30 demo that makes a large chunk of video game purchases.  Like you, I'm an American mid-40s dad and I agree that among my friends/kid's friends the XBox (and Switch) is typically preferred, but Playstation is still seen as the "enthusiast" console here.

I am reading the data very differently than you.  To me the data says that Playstation is the weakest brand of the top 3 in the US.  XBox360 stomped all over the PS3 sales wise.  The PS4 was clearly a better system than XB1, but it's sales were not that much higher for PS4.  Playstation actually only ever had one really dominant system in the US and that was PS2.  There is this narrative on the internet that Playstation is a hugely dominant brand.  This was probably created by Europeans, because in Europe it actually is a hugely dominant brand.  In the US, it isn't.  It had one dominant generation and that's it.  It's been over 20 years since the PS2 released.  Playstation is a weaker brand than either XBox or Nintendo in the US.

We may be disagreeing, because you don't actually realize how strong both Nintendo and XBox are in the US.  Nintendo has been selling to kids since the very beginning.  Therefore almost every category of gamer has a very positive image of Nintendo.  The only exception is males in their teens and early 20's.  They want to be thought of as mature and distance themselves from what they view as a kiddy console.  Once this group grows up, they realize being a kid is actually pretty great and they start liking Nintendo again.  As for XBox, I can't fully explain it, but I observe that people in the US really, really love XBox.  This category of males in the teens and early 20's is going for XBox.  I saw all this enthusiasm for XBox during Generation 7 and I am seeing it return right now.  Enthusiasm for XBox wasn't there in Generation 8, but it's back now.

When you consider how much Americans like both XBox and Nintendo, that puts Playstation in third place.  Obviously, there are still some Americans who like Playstation.  PS5 did outsell X|S during their first year mostly from PS4 enthusiasts.  This year it's reversed.  X|S has been outselling PS5.  And we have all of those Activision and Bethesda exclusives still coming.  Elder Scrolls and CoD are hugely popular in the US, as are many of the other XBox first party games.  PS5 basically has no chance of outselling XBox in the US.  The real question is "will XBox win by a little or a lot"?  This idea that PS5 can outsell X|S is not grounded in reality.  It makes as much sense as someone saying XBox will outsell PS5 in Europe.  You've got to realize where consoles have a strong regional advantage.