i was going to say 18 M is probably impossible because "xbox one is still ms's fastest selling console but i checked out the 360's numbers:

http://www.vgchartz.com/weekly/39446/Global/ 15,900,614

So i guess 18 is possible. still, hardly solid evidence. really wish ms's wasn't so cowardly about sharing this number.

This exactly.  How can you blame chartz?  Microsoft shipment numbers are carefully stored at the bottom of the ocean next to Amelia Earhart

Tagged to see later

It wouldn't surprise me if some of the more casual owners who only buy 1 or 2 games and then forget they own the system, have never connected their XOne to the internet.  I'm certainly not saying that these people are anywhere near the majority of users but I would say that the number is at least 5% of the current userbase.

I know somebody who bought an XBox 360 for working out and the console has sat in its box for a year.  This person isn't a gamer and she didn't even think about using the system for regular gaming.  I doubt this kind of person would typically doll out the money for an XOne, but I guarantee that there's still a small percentage of people with disposable income who do. 

most of you guys missing some important points

- the fist rumors about this figure are from 29th December
so this numbers is probably as of week 52 and does not even include week 5 december sales (which would be kind low anyway, but it adds up)
- there are OVER 200 million Windows 10 active devices. breakdown is about ~180m pcs / tablets ~18m xbox and over 1m phones
so it's possible or even likely that the 18m is not rounded up, but rounded down.
- this numbers is active unique devices in the last 28 days / 4 weeks
so it does not include people who did not use theire xbox in the last 28 days, did not upgrade to new xbox expericene, or do not use theire xbox one online


so if you believe Mary jo foley's sources (and she is one of, if not the, most reliable microsoft insiders) the xbox one is at 18m sold through minimum, but could be even close to, or above 20m
solid sales for sure

Yep solid sales for MS. I'm not trying to put the X1 down at all with this comment but it's just mind blowing that the PS4 is ahead by 15mil. Been a great gen so far can't wait for the VR to hit really interested to see how that will change things. I really hope MS has something ready for the X1 users soon if VR takes off would be a shame for them to miss out.

I always told you guys that Xbox One numbers are overtracked on VGChartz. ;)

I wouldn't personally take the figure as a confirmation of all XBox One's sold through to end users.
It depends entirely on how registering windows is done. If it's handled at the retail level, like all registrations are made when you buy your Xbox One, then yeah it's 18 million XBox One's sold through, but if registration requires all users to either contact Microsoft, by either logging on through their internet or sending off a registration that's in the box of their new system, then some people aren't going to have registered their system.

Still impossible to say just how many XBox One's have been sold to date without this issue being clarified, but I'd expect 18 million to be pretty close to the real number of sold through Xbox One's.

Exactly what I was thinking. Seriously some posters  on this site have such a simplistic view of these matters and probably clouded by their own fanish following. Quite Unbelievable really.  is it really that hard to think of the bigger picture.

it's kind of easy
the xbox one is a solid console
the ps4 is a beast

if the ps4 will have decent, or even great legs, that thing will sell 100 - 150 million