Not sure how else to put this,

When Sony screwed up, they lost 65m customers (A fair chunk of market share) and Xbox gained 55m in that same gen, when Xbox Screwed up, they lost 35m customers and Sony gained 35m in the next gen. To add, Sony gained a lot more market share in Gen 8 because Nintendo also screwed up leaving Sony to compete with two struggling systems not just one. The 360 was also competing against the Nintendo Wii where as the PS4 was competing against the WiiU. Hence the results of Gen 8.

What makes these type of threads pointless today is the two completely different business models. One isn't all about selling consoles, one you can stream their games on Mobile devices and buy them on PC allowing for less console sales for greater Eco market share, while the other brand is mostly all about selling hardware with small steps into the PC and mobile market. Why do people keep trying to compare these two. They don't even have the same console sale targets. Its like comparing Plane sales to Car sales and bragging because one sells more.

I am still surprised people care so much about console sales over what actually makes them successful. Holding onto the PS3 outselling the 360 when the 360 is in a different league of success is what people need to understand, not who sell more.

If console sales is what people need to justify themselves cool, however its a lot bigger than just hardware sales in these modern days. This isn't Sega vs Nintendo anymore.

Crazy swings happen quite often (in fact 100% of the time). I wouldn't shut the door on anything. Shrinking the gap from previous generation to current generation is very likely but a full catch-up? I have plenty of doubt.

+55 million swing from PS1 to PS2
-70 million swing from PS2 to PS3
+29 million current swing (will grow) from PS3 to PS4.

-12.8 million from NES to Super NES
-16 million from Super NES to Nintendo 64
+68.5 million swing from Nintendo 64 to Wii
-87.6 million swing from the Wii to the Wii U
+71.7 million current swing (will grow a lot) from Wii U to the Switch

+61 million swing from Xbox to Xbox 360
-35.7 million current swing (will shrink slightly) from Xbox 360 to Xbox One

The only thing history is showing is that none of these three companies are consistent.
Playstation's historic pattern is up, down, up
Nintendo's historic pattern is down, down, up, down, up
Xbox's historic pattern is up, down

The only thing that I know for sure is that nothing is for sure. The OP may very well be correct in sales being matched but how that happens could take a different path.

Sony's least successful console still outsold Xbox's most successful console. In three generations, Xbox has never won against Playstation, and there's no sign that will change for Gen 9.

Again, this is a thread comparing console sales. Dragging ecosystems and subscriptions into it is like going into a thread about Nintendo vs Sega thead and saying Sega wins cos they own more pachinko establishments.

If you know business, than you would know Profits > Hardware sales. You say the PS3 won over the 360? Even though its a fact the PS3 lost more money than the 360. Hmm that's not how winning works. You dont win by losing more money.

I am still surprised that these sale figures actually matter to some. These brands arent even competing in the same race anymore.

 would you agree that Konami's pattern is up, up, down down, left, right, left, right, B, A, select, start?

https://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=183141

We’ve been here before at the same point in the previous gen. 😛

Sooner or later supply will exceed demand, at which point AAA exclusives (especially if deigned around the new hardware features) can make a big difference in driving sales, setting visual benchmarks, and creating hype. To treat Miles Morales, Horizon 2, Ragnarok and GT7 as "a few games" is underselling it; they're easily the 4 biggest games announced so far. Demon's Souls, Returnal, Ratchet, etc do build excitement and entice some to make the jump early, but they're nowhere near as significant/established as the big 4.

As for the graphical upgrades... Miles and GT7 are/will be the same game with better performance, higher resolution, and Ray Tracing among other bells and whistles (Miles is barely affected but this is bad news for GT7 which needs its "I'm back, bitches! Setting the benchmark and dropping jaws!" moment.) I still don't know what to make of Horizon 2 but it's probably a rare exception where the extra PS5 resources are allocated to enhance graphics meaningfully, bringing the fidelity closer to (albeit not quite matching) a true NextGen game.

I understand that those games have been in development for a while, so making them exclusive wouldn't have magically made them look like true PS5 games. But Rift Apart makes me have second thoughts. It's early, ridiculously good looking, and made by a developer working on several projects!!

Jim Ryan's "We believe in generations" is starting to sound like proper PR bullshit. Rift Apart, DeS, Returnal etc are nice to have but at least give us ONE early REALLY big exclusive to show us that you actually meant what you said. Apparently, he only "believed in generations" for their less significant titles. Otherwise he doesn't believe in them more than Phil Spencer does.

PS5 will outpace PS4 regardless, but they aren't going to meet their 23 million+ FY2022 target. In my opinion, high profile exclusives are needed to achieve that. Yes, the 4 big games will obviously be system sellers even without being exclusive, as evidenced by Miles Morales, but the effect would have been much greater if they were true shiny exclusives.

Personally, I'll probably just wait for the slim model or MidGen upgrade. My PS4 and PC will do until then.