39.1 Million Xbox One Consoles Sold Globally: Report

The Xbox One, Xbox One S, and Xbox One X have sold a total of 39.1 million units. This comes at a time when Microsoft has announced the acquisition of several game studios and the creation of one, The Initiative at E3 2018. According to research firm IHS Markit the Xbox One install base is at 39.1 million units versus the 76.6 million PS4s sold as of March 2018. Microsoft's sales figures are of interest as the company has preferred to focus on engagement as a metric of success over actual Xbox One consoles sold. This is in sharp contrast to Sony's regular updates on its PS4 sales, with the company confirming that the PS4 sold over 73.6 million units as of December 31, 2017. This estimate of 39.1 million Xbox One consoles sold differs wildly from EA's estimate of 29.4 million, a variance of 10 million Xbox One consoles leaves us skeptical to say the least.

"Microsoft ended March 2018 with an Xbox One installed base of 39.1 million compared to 76.6 million for Sony’s PS4. While, Xbox One X has sold well, Microsoft needed its E3 showcase to deliver on first party studio output and its platform exclusives to reap the marketing benefits of the technical and power advantages of Xbox One X over the PS4 Pro," said veteran industry analyst Piers Harding-Rolls of IHS Markit.

"The showcase did not disappoint, with a total of 18 exclusives revealed and on show, and the return of many fan favourites including Halo. Based on this showing and other third-party announcements, it looks like early 2019 is going to be very crowded for game releases."

Just before E3 2018, Microsoft claimed its Xbox One sales had increased by 15 percent year on year.

"Xbox Live players are up 13 percent and Xbox One sales are up 15 percent over the same period last year, but that’s not all. We’ve seen more than 600,000 friendships forged with the Looking For Group feature and there are now more than 1.2 million Clubs on Xbox Live," wrote Mike Nichols, CMO for Gaming at Microsoft in a post on the official Xbox website entitled ‘A Record-Setting Road to E3’.

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