Xbox Outsold PS5 in Japan for the First Time in this Console Gen
- Laurent Giret
- May 19, 2022
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Microsoft’s Xbox Series X|S consoles outsold Sony’s PlayStation 5 in Japan last week. Japan has always been a very difficult market for Xbox, but this is the first time Xbox outsold the PS5 in the country since the beginning of this new console generation.
According to data from Famitsu (via VGC), the Xbox Series S alone was more popular than the PS5 with 6,120 units sold compared to 2,693 units (disc and digital models combined) for the Sony machine. In comparison, the Xbox Series X only sold 105 units in the same timeframe, though the higher price and global supply issues need to be taken into account.
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It’s still hard to know if there’s actual growing momentum for Xbox in Japan, or if these results reflect Sony’s struggles to manufacture enough PS5 consoles due to the ongoing chip shortages. Sony announced earlier this month that it had sold 19.3 million PS5 units worldwide since launch, which is below the 22.4 million PS4 consoles Sony had sold in the same timeframe.
If Microsoft no longer shares data about console sales, the Weekly Famitsu magazine revealed back in March that Microsoft only sold a total of 2.3 million Xbox consoles in Japan over twenty years. The Xbox 360 was the most successful generation in the country with over 1.6 million units sold, followed by the OG Xbox (472,992 units) and Xbox Series X|S (142,024 units). The Xbox One was the worst-performing console in Japan with only 114,831 units sold during the previous console generation.
Microsoft is certainly starting this new console generation in a much better position, and the company also made several moves to make the Xbox ecosystem more appealing to Japanese gamers. Xbox Cloud Gaming launched in the country back in October, and Microsoft also teamed up with Japanese publishers Sega and Square Enix to put Final Fantasy and Yakuza games on Xbox Game Pass.
Unfortunately, we’re still seeing too many Japanese games skipping Xbox consoles entirely, and we had a recent example with the critically-acclaimed remake of the J-RPG Final Fantasy VII that remains exclusive to PlayStation consoles and PC. It’s not clear how Microsoft can change that, but Xbox Series consoles getting some traction in Japan may certainly help in the long run.