As next month's debut of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X grows closer every day, fans are already wondering which of the two consoles will emerge victorious in sales numbers. The PlayStation 4 has dominated this generation, vastly outselling the Xbox One, however, Microsoft's new acquisition of Bethesda and focus on the Game Pass model could give it more of an edge going into the era of the Series X.
Thanks to VGM, some new evidence could indicate that that the PlayStation 5 is tipped to take the early lead, with a new survey citing that an overwhelming percentage of poll-takers who pre-purchased a next-gen console are opting for the standard PS5 with a disc tray. To be precise, 72% of the survey's takers chose the disc-based PS5, while 10% allegedly opted for the digital edition of the console, 30% went for the Series X, and 8% chose the Series S.
In fairness, the survey - which was conducted on September 23 - did use a fairly small sample size of 511 US gamers, so the results could look very different when accounting for a much larger audience on a global scale. It did reveal some other interesting statistics, however, including the fact that only 15% of the survey takers successfully managed to get their hands on a next-generation console. 29% said they attempted to pre-order an Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5 and failed, with the pre-orders also supposedly skewed towards the PlayStation 5's two models.
Interestingly, VGM also polled what games had attracted the survey-takers to each console, with 52% of those who purchased the PlayStation 5 saying that Spider-Man: Miles Morales was the game that sold them. On the Xbox side, 45% of the survey's participants had been swayed by Halo: Infinite, while 26% claimed they were buying the console for the future release of Fable. Overall, it seems like PlayStation is still the favorite to take the lead in the early stages of the next-generation, with a good portion of the US public excited to pick up Sony's newest hardware this holiday.
As for what players can expect when purchasing a PlayStation 5, Sony will be delivering a ton of exciting new games this season, including the aforementioned Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Demon's Souls, Sackboy: A Big Adventure, Bugsnax, and Godfall. It'll be interesting to see whether statistics like VGM's survey equate to the rest of the globe, with the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X primed to have a heated square off next month. Luckily for players, this will likely mean both companies are looking to make this a console launch to remember.
The PlayStation 5 will be available on November 12.
Source: VGM