Now I get all the reasons why a console selling as much as it possibly can is great for a platform holder. 

But what I don't get is why is the focus always on actual console sales as opposed to game sales? All the time.

Yeah, I gi... console sales re important,but isn't that on to a certain point? Like lets look at the PS4 for instance.. say it gets to 100M. Why does it need to sell anymore than that if it can maintain its yearly average software sales? I mean it makes absolutely no sense to me.

These platform holders typically make more money from the sale of ONE single game on their platform than they  do from the sale of a single console. And thats speaking literally. If they are lucky they make about $5-$10 from every console sold. But they make at least $20 from every third party game and everything off every first party game.

The real money comes in selling the software, so why are we so focused on hardware sales even after a console has reached a point where it has sold 100M units?

I focus much more on software sales, but I don't see why you can't focus on both?

The platform comparison is sorted by software sales: http://www.vgchartz.com/platforms/

So the focus ain't always on hardware sales on this site.

Hardware=bigger install base=better chance for thitd parties to jump in.

Alao if you go software sales ninty wins against almost ANYTHING and if you combine ninty's total  first party output for a console vs say, sony's first party lineup, ninty wins. Almost every time.

PS2-PS3 vs 360. If you focus too much on an existing console, the competition will make you pay when you decide to launch your next. If your next console sells less, usually meaning the competition's sold more, your going to sell less games overall and getting your momentum back isn't easy. Luckily for PS4, it was handed this gen like a gift. If XB1 launched like it should have, without DRM or Kinect ever being tied to the console, let alone even mentioned, and $400 retail price, PS4 would not have near the lead it has now in hardware or software sales. It's no doubt part of the reason that Neo (Pro) launched when it did, making sure they didn't focus too much on PS4 and potentially allowing Scorpio (XB1X) to change the tides.

Hardware is like watching the football game and calling plays (which most fans enjoy). Software is like trying to figure out how much money was made off all of those fans during the game (fun for a select few). The stadium must exist and be decent enough (hardware), then depending on how good your team is, you either sell more or less (software).

I think both are important, and both are covered quite well on this site.

That said, hardware sales are exciting, because the more hardware sold, the more software the platform gets. Ultimately, if we could get a games platform to reach the levels of the iPhone, then we could have all of our games, app, and services on that device. That would help sell even more units, and offer even more, and higher quality games, apps, and services.

At the end of the day, the more people using the platform, the more money and man power the device gets. This benefits everyone that uses the platform, and everyone that creates for the platform. More Hardware = More Software = More Software Sold = More Invested Into New Software, and on, and on, and on.

I think one reason the software discussion has been low lately is because digital is becoming a huge percentage of software sales so we have no idea how accurate the numbers are.

We have gotten a bunch of reports lately of sequels having huge drops at retail then everybody screams the franchise is dying just to find out days or weeks later that digital sales were amazing and the game did just as good or even better than its predecessor.

Software sales are often based on hardware. If a console can't get a decent install base then no game will sell very well on it. For example every console with over 1000 physical games or 300m software sold, ended up selling 49m+ hardware.

Hardware sales can be indicative to software sales. The more a said console is sold...the greater the chance a piece of software is sold for said console.

I think its because ~620m copies of games sold physical+digital through stores.... is hard to put into perspective.

When Nintendo Switch was at 7.64m sold it was a ~27m copies of games sold (from september 30th).

Dont think we have any Xbox numbers for software?...... rough guess? its probably well under half of the PS4 numbers.

Avg switch owner has like 3.5 games (which isnt bad, its in its 1st year).

Avg PS4 owner has like 8.8 games.

Also I think its because total hardware numbers dictate what games will come to a system.

This gen, if your not a MS/Nintendo 1st party, theres no logically reason you would not want your game on the PS4, because of its insanely large user base.