Indeed. If anything, WiI U sales should be greater than the PS4. Not to be rude to the OP, but that would be the likely case.

For my own answer towards the OP, Sony obtained one thing Microsoft nearly destroyed but has slowly regained or is regaining; trust. If anything, it was the perfect segway any console has had in terms of regaining trust. The PS3 was an impressive machine, but not only was the price too high, Sony's arrogance had cost them dearly along with it. After taking years to mend the fences, 2011s great power outage happened; complicating relations even more. However, after how bad Microsoft messed up shortly before E3, Sony saw the opportunity, and this time, not only would they atone for their mistakes during the 7th Gen., they regained trust amongst many; berating all of Microsoft's proposed plans and thus becoming the 'saviour' of the gaming world to many. After that, the price was the knockout blow in the sales war; ultimately atoning for the disastrous $599.99 price tag. Once that was set in stone, the generations winner had already been decided by the consumers, or rather gamers.

According to Metacritic, Wii U library is very similar to XB1, therefore both are very similar in terms of hardware sales as well. 

I am not certain (UK Maybe) that at the time, even if the One launched before the PS4 worldwide that the gap would be immeasurable to compete with. Refining the One from an 'All-In-One Entertainment System' towards a 'Gamers-Only' machine complicated the situation. Consumers most likely couldn't trust Microsoft at that point since the messaging was a paradox as opposed towards a simplistic ideology.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDW0ZnZxjn4

Also, PS4 vs Xbox One was also a very lopsided battle of marketing lines.  It was "We're about otocreate the next watercooler" vs "Greatness Awaits" and "This is for the players".  Even after recovering from their initial blunders, their early ads post launch still never compared. 

Lest not we forget their clairvoyance, too.

"Beta tested in the future", they arent wrong as MCC and Driveclub show.

After the consoles have been out for a while, you're right. The games are what matters. I agree with that. When they were released, microsoft's folly with the xbox one helped sony sell the playstation 4. Core gamers were ranting to friends, co-workers, on forums and to any passerby about microsoft's policies with the xbox one. It was in news articles at the time also. That single handily destroyed the launch of the xbox one.

Edited for a quick add in or two. Metacritic is a poor judge of quality in general. The sources for their scores are unreliable. You might as well just take any and every video game related forum,  blog or news article as the gospel on gaming. :D

If they can't turn it around then in the end it won't matter as much if they retreat to the PC space from whence they came from, that's an area Sony seems to be avoiding at the moment and with the PS4's success I'd imagine they now have to stay away from it or risk losing console ground, they sold off the last PC centric piece they had recently as well as their Viao a while back and even then Nintendo is still more or less in the game if MS pulls out, I just don't see eye to eye with some people believing that Sony winning this gen will somehow mean complete and utter slaughtering destruction of MS and Nintendo, where Sony will take over every spectrum of gaming, they won't and can't, not with other competition around and places they've had to cut off and now lost to.

We don't even know if the PS5 will do the same if not more than the PS4, the PS4 could be Sony's one hit wonder this gen.

I just feel that even if MS steps out from the console market, it doesn't mean it;s game over for them, they are still who they are and won't need to shed off much like Sony did, Japanese devs are even porting games to the PC space now and there is an interest in PC gaming on the Japanese side as well as thw west and EU so MS has that market to win back and control once more, when they do they'll have that ace while Sony won't.

"Don't be afraid to say that you heard it here first." I'm not sure I follow from that, what am I supposed to say?.

Yes it is. It's just your opinion that you think the PS brand is stronger, not fact. And you can believe whatever you want, because that's your opinion.

The sales of playstation consoles overall beg to differ. It's more popular as a brand and it sells better than it's competion most of the time. Hand helds is nintendo's market. 

That would be the same thing as me saying that the Xbox brand is stronger though since last gen they were ahead for most, if not all of it. (Compared to the PS3 I mean. The Wii completely destroyed everything else last gen).

Anyways, I understand your point but it's still more of a general preference someone has, so its still an opinion.  If someone likes a movie and I don't, to them it could be a strong brand or franchise, but to me it could be nothing. It's his general preference that he wants to think the PS brand is stronger, his opinion.