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PS4 and Xbox One are two different consoles from Sony and Microsoft, respectively. As of Q2 2021, Sony had cumulative PS4 sales of about 116 million units. However, Microsoft was only able to sell about 51 million units as of Q2, 2020. That said, it’s safe to say that people use PS4 more, globally.
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Xbox One vs PlayStation 4: Which console is more popular in the United States?
Both Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s PS4 were introduced almost at the same time. In case you don’t know, Microsoft started selling the Xbox One consoles on November 22, 2013, in North America. As for Sony’s PlayStation 4, it was initially released on November 15, 2013, in North America.
Before going into the “popularity” debate of both consoles in the United States, let me briefly talk about the history of both consoles.
Xbox One history and number of sales in the United States
The Xbox One is Microsoft’s successor to the Xbox 360 and the third base platform in the Xbox line of video game consoles. In 2013, this product was initially offered in North America, Australia, South America, and a few European nations.
Almost a year later, Microsoft was able to release the Xbox One gaming console to the rest of the world, including China, Japan, and other European countries. Interestingly, the Xbox One was the first-ever Xbox gaming console released in China.
Speaking of the Xbox One features; it packs an AMD Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), which is built around the x86 architecture used in the Original Xbox. The product also came with an improved Xbox One controller when compared to that of the Xbox 360 console. That’s not all; another unique feature of the Xbox One console is that it can play Blu-ray discs. The product also came with a refined controller design and voice navigation.
The introduction of all the amazing features mentioned above to the Xbox One was one of the reasons why the gaming console received a lot of favors in the US market. At the end of Q4 of 2013, Microsoft revealed that it was able to sell over 3 million Xbox One consoles in the US market, according to TheVerge.
As of 2014, reports revealed that Microsoft’s Xbox One sales in the US saw cumulative sales of about 4.38 million units. This achievement was partly because of the move by Microsoft to reduce the price of the consoles by $50 in the United States. In 2018, Microsoft sold over 4.3 million Xbox One units in the United States alone.
Overall, according to Statista, the total number of Xbox One units sold in North America by Microsoft as of December 2020 is 31.54 million.
PlayStation 4 history and number of sales in the United States
The PlayStation 4 console is the successor of Sony’s PlayStation 3. It belongs to the eighth generation of video game consoles; this explains why it competes with Microsoft’s Xbox One.
The PlayStation 4 gaming console was first introduced in North America, Europe, South America, and Australia in 2013. In 2014, Sony released the consoles in Japan and several other regions, across the world.
The PlayStation 4 gaming consoles pack tons of excellent features; one of them is the AMD Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), which was built upon the x86-64 architecture. Furthermore, PS4 also came with several other improvements over its predecessor; PlayStation 3. Its controllers came with improved buttons and analog sticks.
With the introduction of new features to the PlayStation 4 console, Sony was able to attract a lot of people to purchase the product after its release. According to TheVerge, the company sold over 4.2 million PlayStation 4 units by the end of 2014.
In 2015, reports revealed that Sony sold a total of 5.7 million PlayStation 4 units in the United States. During the 2016 holiday season, Sony was able to sell over 6.2 million units.
As of July 2021, Sony sold a total of about 116 million PlayStation 4 units, with over 30 percent of the sales coming from the United States.
Xbox One vs PS4: which is more popular in the US?
With 30% of the total PlayStation 4 sales coming from the US, it means about 40 million of the consoles were sold in the country.
Comparing the figure to the 31.54 million Xbox One units sold in the US as of December 2020, it’s safe to say that PlayStation 4 is more popular. Looking at the figures again, you’ll notice that the difference in popularity between the two gaming consoles isn’t that much.
Which console is the most popular in the whole world?
As earlier mentioned, Sony’s PlayStation 4 had a total sales of over 116 million units across the globe. As for its counterpart, the Xbox One gaming console, it was only able to achieve a total sales of about 51 million units, according to an estimate from independent analysts. I’m using independent analysis here because Microsoft failed to release its official hardware sales numbers since 2015.
With the figures above, it’s safe to say that the PlayStation 4 gaming console is by far more popular across the world than the Xbox One console.
There are a couple of reasons why Sony’s PlayStation consoles are more popular than their Xbox counterparts. One of them is because Sony has several more years of experience in the industry than Microsoft. The first PlayStation console was introduced in 1994 while Microsoft only entered the industry in 2001, with the release of the Original Xbox gaming console.
Apart from that, another reason for the PlayStation 4’s popularity over Xbox One across the globe is that it comes with better features. For instance, in terms of overall performance from third-party games, the PS4 consoles perform excellently.
Apart from that, PlayStation 4 has a simpler user interface when compared to the Xbox One console. Furthermore, PlayStation 4 has a larger install base than its counterparts; this is another reason why it’s more popular across the world.
Using the total number of units sold by both gaming consoles as a yardstick, the bottom line is that the PlayStation 4 gaming console is more popular than the Xbox One, globally.
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Which One is the cheaper: Xbox One or PS4?
When PlayStation 4 was released more than 8 years ago, it was sold at a starting price of US$399.99, €399.99, £349.99. This is slightly cheaper when compared to Microsoft’s Xbox One introductory release prices: US$499, €499, and £429.
Today, however, the Xbox One S (1T) costs about $226 on GameStop, while the regular Xbox One (1T) sells for $250. As for the PlayStation 4 console; depending on the model you’re opting for, you’ll most likely get one between the price range of $112 and $225.
That said, the bottom line is that the PlayStation 4 gaming console is slightly cheaper than the Xbox One. It has been like that since the release of both video game consoles in November 2013.
