Microsoft Probably Sold 50-55 Million Xbox One Consoles

Thanks to a new legal filing, we know that Microsoft sold roughly 50-55 million Xbox One consoles, less than half that of the PlayStation 4.

“Sony has surpassed Microsoft in terms of console sales and install base, having sold more than twice as many as did Xbox in the last generation,” a (translation of a) legal filing in Brazil related to Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition reads. The “last generation” refers to the Xbox One and PS4.

And from there, all we need to do is a little math: because we know that Sony sold 117.2 million PlayStation 4s, that means that Microsoft sold fewer than 58.6 million Xbox One consoles. I feel like 50-55 million is probably accurate, but maybe I’m being generous.

Either way, you may recall that Xbox One sales were so bad that Microsoft stopped reporting unit sales figures. And that this fiasco triggered a dramatic strategy change that, today, Xbox gamers are benefitting from, with dramatically better consoles, subscription services, and a market-leading cloud gaming service.

And things are looking better for Xbox consoles today, too: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed that the Xbox Series X|S outsold the PlayStation 5 in the United States in the previous four consecutive months.