It's been nearly one week since both the PS5 and the Xbox Series X/S first launched, giving those lucky enough to get one their first taste of the next generation of gaming. Though, now it is deeply apparent that Japanese consumers prefer one next-gen console over the other, as some PS5 and Xbox Series X/S sales numbers are in for the first week.
Both consoles have generated a great deal of excitement from members of the gaming community worldwide. Obviously, a multitude of people have been wanting to get their hands on one console or the other for the entire year of 2020. Next-gen excitement was so high that Walmart's website crashed due to the volume of PS5 orders. Although, in Japan, it seems more clear which of the two consoles has found more success initially.
According to a recent report by Famitsu, which was later summarized by Twitter user Nibel, the PS5 has sold nearly 120,000 units in Japan within four days of the console's launch, whereas the Xbox Series X/S only sold over 21,000 units. That's roughly 6x the number of units compared to the combined sales of the Series X/S.
In addition to console sales, sales figures for the top-selling PS5 games were also made available. The best selling PS5 game was Spider-Man: Miles Morales, with the remake of Demon's Souls trailing not too far behind. It could just be due to the fact that PlayStation is a much more popular and recognizable brand compared to Xbox in Japan, but either way, these are some extremely impressive numbers, especially given how little time the consoles have been out for.
It's important to note that historically the PlayStation brand is more popular than Xbox in Japan. These numbers reflect each brand's popularity, but they also don't paint a full picture when it comes to console sales. Both the PS5 and the Xbox Series X/S were in short supply in North America, which suggests that they both hit big sales numbers. As well, Microsoft announced that the Xbox Series X/S surpassed its prior console sales record in the UK.
All things considered, this is still only the beginning for both the PS5 and the Xbox Series X/S. While the sales results of Japan are impressive on their own, especially considering the short timeframe, this will likely pale in comparison to worldwide sales. For now, this remains an impressive feat for Sony and should hopefully reflect the PS5's continued financial success.
The PS5 is available now worldwide.
Source: Famitsu