A new report reveals that Xbox One sales may have reached at least 18 million units, based on the number of consoles that have been active in the last 28 days.

The fight for console supremacy has proved to be a tough one for Microsoft. The Xbox One has found it difficult to match the stellar sales of Sony's PS4, with the rival console winning such recent battles as the Black Friday sales. With Microsoft remaining secretive over sales figures, finite details have been hard to come by, but it's now been revealed that Xbox One sales may have reached over 18 million units.

The figure comes from a report showcased in Windows Weekly, where Microsoft analyst Mary Jo Foley revealed that the 18 million units figure was given by a source. Based around the number of active Windows 10 users, it seems apparent that 18 million Xbox One users were active during the last 28 days. This suggests that it gives a correct estimate for the number of Xbox One consoles currently in homes.

Of course, without an official statement from Microsoft itself, this sales figure cannot be verified. There's also the issue of any users who have not made their Xbox One 'active' in the last 28 days, although it seems likely that the bulk of console owners would be included in that estimate. If the figure is correct, it means that Microsoft has still not hit the heights that Sony reached all the way back in early 2015, when the PS4 hit 20.2 million units.

Nonetheless, the Xbox One did see an improvement in sales over the course of 2015. This was helped in part due to new software and the launch of Xbox 360 backward compatibility, which Microsoft expected to sell millions of new consoles. The Xbox One even managed to leapfrog PS4 sales in certain moments, with the launch of Halo 5 helping to put Microsoft's console into first place in October's sales race.

Little has managed to slow Sony's dominance of the market, however. Although the Xbox One has certainly proved to be a popular console, the PS4 has still maintained a firm grip on sales. Sony has pulled no punches in terms of units sold, with its console proving to be a big hitter most months of the year. The PS4 topped units sold in both September and November, with the latter also the biggest month ever for PlayStation Store digital sales.

It's all added up to give Sony a tremendous lead in the console sales race. Just this week, Sony revealed that its overall figure for PS4 units sold was nearly 36 million consoles, with 5.7 million PS4 units sold over the holiday period alone. With such a huge stranglehold on the market, it's going to be a tough feat for Microsoft to ever get ahead.

Source: Windows Weekly