Xbox Series X UK Sales Beat PS5 in April but Fails to Catch Up with Switch

Despite largely falling behind the PS5 in terms of global sales and overall popularity, the Xbox Series X did win in the UK last April in terms of units sold.

Xbox logo
Microsoft's Xbox logo is seen during the worldwide release of the Xbox Series X gaming console at an electronics store in Tokyo on November 10, 2020. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP) (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images)

According to a report by WindowsCentral, both the Xbox Series X and S comprised a nice chunk of over 90,000 consoles sold in the UK last month. There were no official sales numbers revealed (Microsoft hasn't put up hardware sales figures yet for the Series X and S), but the next-gen Xbox consoles did conveniently outpace the PS5 in the British market, as multiple other reports state.

The PS5's decline comes after leading UK sales charts in February and March, as reported by NME.com. Supplies experienced a massive blow come April, which allowed Microsoft's competing system to come back as more Series X and S units came to the market. As such, Sony is trying everything they can to improve PS5 supply, even looking to redesign their console to make it cheaper to build.

A Fast-Approaching Green Tide

Upon launch, the Xbox Series X and S didn't get as much fanfare as the competing PlayStation 5. As such, it resulted to the Sony console selling out extremely fast. It was recently revealed that the PS5 has already shipped 7.8 million units in only six months.

Obviously, this came with a catch. Sony's next-gen console is indeed flying off the shelves, but not getting into the hands of gamers. A lot of people blame the scalper culture, and they're not wrong. PS5s sell out within minutes (sometimes even seconds) of restock updates, and then they show up at secondary markets with insane price markups.

This is likely where Xbox found its footing in terms of sales. Aside from the PS5 basically being impossible to get, the Series X is actually the better buy in terms of value; or at least that's what TechRadar claims. There is some truth to this because from a technical standpoint, the next-gen Xbox has more powerful hardware than the competition. The Series X is far more capable at outputting buttery smooth gameplay at native 4K, while the PS5 can barely render 1440p at the same (or even lower) frame rates.

Xbox series x
Detail of the LED logo on a Microsoft Xbox Series X home video game console, taken on October 9, 2020. (Photo by Phil Barker/Future Publishing via Getty Images)

Handheld Gaming Reigns

Despite improved sales performance from the Series X/S though, it still couldn't compete with the juggernaut that is the Nintendo Switch. It's the top-selling gaming console in the UK, and for good reason: there are simply no Xbox or PlayStation consoles available, for one! How else are gamers going to get their fix?

As of late, the Nintendo Switch has just surpassed 84 million units sold, with millions more coming to the market. At the rate that it is selling, the Switch is probably going to pass 100 million units faster than the Wii and Sony's PlayStation 4.

Nintendo switch
Animal Crossing: New Horizons on a Nintendo Switch game console in Seattle, Washington, U.S,, on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2020. The game became a hit game during the pandemic by providing an enjoyable escape: a virtual paradise where home-bound players across the globe could begin life anew, building up idyllic islands alongside fellow villagers, who appear in the form of birds, dogs, or even ostriches. Photographer: Chona Kasinger/Bloomberg via Getty Images

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Written by RJ Pierce

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