If sales numbers have any bearing on the great console debate, then the PlayStation 5 is certainly looking in good shape against the Xbox Series X. With the PS5 at 2.83 million units and the Xbox Series X at 1.31 million units, Sony has managed to more than double Microsoft's console sales.
While the figures seem to paint the picture of a fairly one-sided race, the supply shortages and availability issues plaguing both consoles make it difficult to call. As IBM recently confirmed, chip shortages could continue to 2023, meaning that the conditions leading to these numbers should hold, and barring any surprises, the PS5 is expected to outsell the Xbox Series X throughout the rest of the year. Interestingly, in lieu of being able to get their hands on a PS5, the data suggests that many customers have opted to purchase the PS4, leading to an unexpectedly high market share still held by the older console.
While PS5 and Xbox Series X are markedly similar and make for an interesting comparison, the true king of console sales is the Nintendo Switch, according to numbers given by Ampere Analysis, at a staggering 5.86 million, more than both of the other two competitors combined. Of course, sales for the Switch were buoyed by the insane success of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which was on the best-sellers list for March 2021, an entire year after its release.
While both consoles have been notoriously difficult to obtain, the PS5 has seen staggering resale numbers that aren't matched by the Xbox Series X. Just recently, it was revealed that the PS5 was resold over 100,000 times on StockX alone. As it currently stands, the Xbox Series X has sold a total of 49,000 units on StockX, about half that of the PS5. While it's difficult to say for certain with the current supply conditions, the appetite for resale consoles seems to be anecdotally favoring the PS5, suggesting that it may be viewed by fans as the superior console.
With resellers employing bots to snatch up the remaining inventories, major retailers like Target have opted to switch to a store-by-store inventory system, meaning that individual locations can list their Xbox Series X stock as soon as it comes. In theory, this should give patient customers a leg up on resellers since they won't be able to time the releases. Unfortunately, regardless of system preference, fans and would-be customers will have to continue to battle through the brutal mismatch between current supply and demand.