It is no secret that Playstation has been outselling Xbox spectacularly for the last two generations. Now, although I do think that there are multiple reasons for this, there is one specific theory that I keep seeing pop up a lot in gaming forums, and that is that Xbox games simply don't have the same pull as Sony games. And again, looking at the sales numbers, it is hard to argue against that theory; but then I look at Steam charts and something just doesn't add up. Xbox games on Steam tend to sell a lot better than Sony games, with several games being able to stay in the top 100 charts for dozens of consecutive weeks, a feat that no game from Sony has ever been able to achieve.

But it doesn't stop there; when we look at the peak player count for the last 24 hours, we can clearly see that several Xbox games not only tend to sell better than Sony's, but they are also played for much longer and tend to have much longer legs.

So, in the end, why do PC players prefer Xbox games? or rather, why are gamers content with playing Xbox games on PC and not on Xbox?
Is it the genre? could it be that the 3rd person action adventure fanbase has already gathered around the Playstation hardware? or could it be that PC players who are interested in Sony games at launch (or close to it) simply don´t have any other option than to buy Playstation hardware to play them?

I strongly believe that this last option is the safest bet; that is why I truly believe that Microsoft made a huge mistake when they decided to release their games on PC on the same day as Xbox. I think they still would have been able to reap the benefits of PC gaming by releasing their games at least 6 month to one year later there, without sacrificing their Xbox hardware. What do you guys think?

I think it's as simple as "PS5 and Xbox have very similar game libraries". It's difficult for Microsoft to show what Sony users are missing.

On the other hand, if PS6 and Xbox2 go the similar route, maybe Sony will lose out for the same reason.

I don't see why MS has to follow Sony, when they are selling their games decently on PC and whatever they get on Xbox.

it's weird seeing people want to constantly shift PC to a corner to make a plastic box sales go brrr, when they could just sell to both and not induce Fomo into ppl. I like having a choice and I like my time being respected, hence I prefer day and date releases instead of console first, PC whenever. For the 3 games I've bought from Sony on Steam so far, all 3 were "wait another year till they are dirt cheap, or grab them in a cheaper bundle".

When MS released Age of Empires HD collections, I bought them day 1, same for Gears 5. You're far more likely to get my money if you release day and date and price accordingly, instead of making me wait and keeping your prices high later on (like Sony is doing on PC).

MS didn't make a mistake, they made a great choice, and Steam charts prove this. They are making money on PC, and MS are mostly about making money whenever they can, be it their own store, their own console, Gamepass or on Steam. I don't see MS ever going back to the old days of Xbox first, PC much later, and it certainly wouldn't fare well with the PC crowd to just drop the commitment to the platform like that.

Don't forget, none of us here are businessmen/sales accountants, so what you think may be best for the company, isn't exactly the best for everyone (myself as an example, your idea goes against respecting my time and clearly not wanting my money, which would make me want to pay less going forward). 

How can you look at all those games listed above and conclude that those game libraries are "very similar"?

No kidding. Those libraries couldn't be anymore different lol.

I am curious how big Sony can make it on PC because their games really don't cater to the PC audience. PC gamers love FPS, RPG, Strategy, and Survival. None of these are Sony's strongsuits lol

Well, the list does have a few Microsoft exclusives:  Sea of Thieves, Microsoft Flight Simulator and so on...  but that list also starts at 62 and ends at 1508.

So I'm guessing plenty of the other games on that are also available on both Xbox and PS5.  In general, I see the same exact same games released on both platforms, so it doesn't really matter which one you buy.

First-party PlayStation PC games helped Sony generate $2.5 billion from its Other segment, a new all-time high.

PlayStation's ~$27 billion FY22 revenues were driven by record-breaking earnings from hardware, software, and its other segment.https://t.co/MewBFYSwc8

— Derek Strickland (@DeekeTweak) May 3, 2023

2.5 billions in revenue for the "others" segment, including PC ports and VR, so it's mostly PC ports

Wouldn’t that include sales of the VR headset itself? 

I would say you missed the difference between Sony and Xbox main games being SP and MP games so Sony having a much more front loaded sales curve, just look at the maximum peaks, but sure after some weeks Sony games will drop from the top while MS games will be there for longer.

Since we don't have the VR sales yet we can't infer much.