VGChartz Sales Comparison Charts June 2022 Discussion Thread

[kenjab]

The_Liquid_Laser said:

kenjab said:

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.  

I never said or implied that Playstation was dominant.  But just because Playstation isn't dominant doesn't mean it's not strong or that Americans don't care for the brand. If that were the case there'd already be PS5s in stock all over the country.  Saying Americans don't care for Playstation is like saying we don't care for Chick-fil-A just because it's outsold by McDonald's and Taco Bell every year (yes, it's almost lunchtime, lol).

I mean, look at American video games media (IGN, GiantBomb, Kinda Funny, etc).  They devote tons of time to Playstation topics, usually far more than Nintendo. Why would they spend so much time on it if Americans didn't care about the brand?

Again, NOT saying Playstation is dominant or even #1, just that I think you underestimate the overall demand of the platform here.  In my opinion it's way too soon to call this gen in favor of XBox Series over PS5 already.