Gamers have been busy testing their skills and trying out new titles with great zeal on the Sony PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One, as evidenced by a new report, which reveals that nearly 55 million consoles were sold in 2015.
But which of the two behemoths is the apple of gamers' eye? If Electronic Arts (EA) CFO Blake Jorgensen is to be believed, then the PlayStation 4 surpassed the Xbox One's sales worldwide.
At the company's earnings call, Jorgensen revealed that the combined worldwide sales of Sony's PS4 and Microsoft's Xbox One stood at 55 million per EA's estimates.
"The console purchases up through the end of calendar year 2015, our estimate is 55 million units out there, which has exceeded virtually everyone's forecast for the year, and is now almost 50 precent higher than the previous console cycle," says Jorgensen. "So all of that is very, very positive; all the gameplay we are seeing and the engagement in things like Ultimate Team we're seeing as positive."
Earlier in January, Sony spilled the beans that the Japanese company sold 35.9 million units of PlayStation 4 since the console was launched.
If one does the math and subtracts this sales figure from the 55 million units sold as disclosed by Jorgensen, then it can be deduced that the number of Xbox One units sold is at the 19 million mark.
The numbers reflect that sales of PlayStation 4 units were nearly double those of the Xbox One. Not only did the PlayStation 4 outperform the Xbox One, but it did so with thumping success.
The holiday season was cited as one of the major reasons for increase in the consoles' physical sales. Nearly 13 million copies of Star Wars: Battlefront were shipped in 2015 alone, which according to EA "skewed even more physical" than it estimated. According to Jorgensen, over a million units of the game were sold in bundles with gaming consoles.
"Star Wars: Battlefront was our largest digital launch ever. Although it did lean more towards physical copies over the full quarter, as holiday gift giving became the dominant driver of purchases," says Jorgensen.
Even though the sales figures of the Xbox One look dismal when compared to those of the PlayStation 4, the fact that consumers are purchasing consoles is encouraging news for the market. Moreover, both Microsoft and Sony's current-generation consoles are performing better when compared to their respective predecessors.
For those wondering if the EA sales figure of 55 million console units included the Wii U from Nintendo, it seems unlikely as the company does not develop games for the platform.
Photo: Fe Ilya | Flickr
