Link to VGChartz article here.

PS5 vs Xbox Series X|S vs Switch 2023 Americas Sales Comparison Charts Through May

Here we see data representing the sales through to consumers and change in sales performance of the three current platforms (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch) and two legacy platforms (PlayStation 4 and Xbox One) over comparable periods for 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. Also shown is the market share for each of the consoles over the same periods.

Year to Date Sales Comparison (Same Periods Covered)

Market Share (Same Periods Covered)

2020 – (January 2020 to May 2020)

2021 – (January 2021 to May 2021)

2022 – (January 2022 to May 2022)

2023 – (January 2023 to May 2023)

"Year to date" sales for 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 sales are shown in series at the top of the table and then just below a comparison of 2023 versus 2022 and 2023 versus 2021 is displayed.  This provides an easy-to-view summary of all the data.

Total Sales and Market Share for Each Year

Microsoft

• Xbox Series X|S
• 1.39 million units sold year-to-date
• Down year-on-year 467,872 units (-25.2%)

Nintendo

• Nintendo Switch
• 2.09 million units sold year-to-date
• Down year-on-year 92,999 units (-4.3%)

Sony

• PlayStation 5
• 2.63 million units sold year-to-date
• Up year-on-year 1,277,950 units (94.2%)
• PlayStation 4
• 0.02 million units sold year-to-date
• Down year-on-year 86,692 (-85.1%)

Worldwide Hardware Estimates for May 2023

Link to VGChartz article here.

The Nintendo Switch was the best-selling console worldwide with 1,525,579 units sold for May 2023, according to VGChartz estimates. The Nintendo Switch has now sold an estimated 126.52 million units lifetime worldwide.

The PlayStation 5 sold an estimated 1,095,237 units to bring its lifetime sales to 38.45 million units. The Xbox Series X|S sold 329,569 units to bring their lifetime sales to 22.01 million units. The PlayStation 4 sold an estimated 11,548 units to bring its lifetime sales to 117.05 million units.

PS5 sales compared to the same month for the PS4 in 2016 are up by nearly 343,000 units, while the Xbox Series X|S compared to the same month for the Xbox One are up by over 89,000 units. PS4 sold 752,290 units for the month of May 2016 and Xbox One sales were at 240,190 units.

Nintendo Switch sales compared to the same month a year ago are up by 472,773 (44.9%). PlayStation 5 sales are up by 519,032 units (90.1%) and Xbox Series X|S sales are down by 132,424 units (-28.7%). The PlayStation 4 is down 16,833 units (-59.3%) year-over-year.

Looking at sales month-on-month, Nintendo Switch sales are up by nearly 252,000 units, PlayStation 5 sales are down by nearly 251,000 units, and Xbox Series X|S sales are down by over 52,000 units.

2023 year-to-date, the PlayStation 5 has sold an estimated 7.44 million units, the Nintendo Switch has sold 5.88 million units, and the Xbox Series X|S has sold 2.23 million units.

Check out the breakdown of the Americas sales here, the Europe sales here, and the Japan sales here.

Monthly Sales:

Global hardware estimates for May 2023 (Followed by lifetime sales):

1. Switch - 1,525,579 (126,512,699)
2. PlayStation 5 - 1,095,237 (38,449,757)
3. Xbox Series X|S - 329,569 (22,012,569)
4. PlayStation 4 - 11,548 (117,045,066)

Weekly Sales:

Global May 6, 2023 hardware estimates:

1. Switch - 391,769
2. PlayStation 5 - 304,537
3. Xbox Series X|S - 74,790
4. PlayStation 4 - 3,058

Global May 13, 2023 hardware estimates:

1. Switch - 426,852
2. PlayStation 5 - 275,618
3. Xbox Series X|S - 78,898
4. PlayStation 4 - 2,737

Global May 20, 2023 hardware estimates:

1. Switch - 360,608
2. PlayStation 5 - 257,743
3. Xbox Series X|S - 85,842
4. PlayStation 4 - 2,845

Global May 27, 2023 hardware estimates:

1. Switch - 346,350
2. PlayStation 5 - 257,339
3. Xbox Series X|S - 90,039
4. PlayStation 4 - 2,908

Switch really did get a huge boost this month, bigger than I expected. June will be lower but it won't fully return to normal then so it's for sure gonna do better in the first half half of this year than I thought it would. PS5 and Xbox Series continue the recent trend though things should start getting more interesting with the latter soon.

Xbox shipment data! Though hard to get it to be 100% accurate, plus it is total Xbox shipments so at points it is 2 Xbox consoles combined. But with the Xbox One discontinued at the end of 2020 that means 2021 and 2022 are all Xbox Series X|S. If you were to do a straight line from the middle of the 10M figure you would see Xbox Series X|S shipment figures for 2021 and 2022 were a little above 10M each, plus whatever it shipped in 2020. 2020 includes the first 2 months of the Xbox Series X|S plus whatever the Xbox One shipped that year.

Xbox Series X|S 2021+2022 shipments are likely around ~21M give or take a bit, plus another likely 3M or just above that for 2020 brings Xbox Series X|S shipments to around ~24M at the end of 2022. As always there is some room to be a bit off and shipped doesn't equal sell-through. 

The power of TOTK. Switch sales are incredible for its age.

Xbox though, yikes, less than a third of PS5 and less than a quarter of the Switch. I've been saying for ages now that big exclusives can't come soon enough, but at this point, I think it's too late, the damage may well be done and Xbox Series is doomed to be a repeat of the Xbone.

The Switch has the best legs for a Nintendo console since what the Game Boy? At this point it is going to be closing the launch aligned gap with the DS pretty much every month until either it passes the DS or is discontinued. 

I'd at least wait and see how it does this holiday season before thinking it's too late. Assuming Starfield is a big hit and there's proper Series X stock this time it should do way better compared to the last holiday season. And it should have a significantly better lineup going forward compared to the Xbox One's lineup in 2017-2021 which will help keep it ahead.

We'll see; Series X is widely available now, yet sales are still limp. By the time it builds up a strong lineup, its reputation might be permanently tarnished. And that's assuming it ever gets to that point; MS have been promising big things for years and years now but it seems they just can't manage to achieve a consistent stream of big, quality games.

I think that could finally change starting with Starfield since Xbox's 2024 looks decently promising right now though we'll need to see if Hellblade 2 does actually make it that year. Since it's still selling better than the Xbox One did in 2016 despite a dry first half it'll for sure be an improvement over it in the end at least though not as much as it could've been if they had a better 2022.

@Welfare has done some pixel counting and come up with some numbers a bit lower than what I did. 

Based on known Switch shipment figures then doing % Xbox is compared to that he got:

• 2020: ~7.3M (Includes Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S)
• 2021: Xbox ~9.7M (Just Xbox Series X|S)
• 2022: Xbox ~10.1M (Just Xbox Series X|S)

Based on 1 pixel = 80K he came up with:

• 2020: 7.0M
• 2021: 9.8M
• 2022: 10.1M

Welfare also pointed out 2022 could be estimated as it has the 2022 Switch figure above 2019, which didn't happen. It is possible this graph was done before 2022 data was all out. If 2022 is not just estimates we are talking ~19.8M for the Xbox Series X|S in 2021 and 2022 combined. Then add whatever it shipped in 2020.