PS4 vs. Xbox One Sales: Microsoft Price Cut Doubles Xbox Sales, But Sony Remains In The Lead

In May, Microsoft announced it would slash the price of its Xbox One, which launched last November for $499. The device, which launched June 9 without the Kinect, led to an increase in sales last month. Though the Redmond, Washington-based multimedia company didn’t reveal the exact sales figures of its eighth-generation console, it did say the device’s sales more than doubled.

“Since the new Xbox One offering launched on June 9th, we’ve seen sales of Xbox One more than double* in the U.S., compared to sales in May, and solid growth in Xbox 360 sales,” Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) said in a statement. The company said the data was based on internal information for the month and sold through numbers.

Still, the PlayStation 4 continues to outsell the Xbox One, at 9 million units sold. Microsoft’s Xbox One is at 5 million consoles sold worldwide, according to a recent Edge magazine interview with Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Corporate Vice President Phil Harrison.

"It's about demonstrating that Xbox One is the only place where you'll be able to play that number of games to that quality, those exclusives, those blockbusters, that breadth of support from the ID@Xbox programme, at the right price, supported by a great online services and continuous improvements,” Harrison told Edge.

"Hats off to Sony, they've had a great start; they have been in more countries and – to date, at least – at a lower price. We have announced a new Xbox One at a lower price; we go to 29 new countries starting in September."

Back in April, Sony (NYSE:SNE) had moved 7 million PS4 units, and the Xbox One was at 5 million units shipped to retail stores like Best Buy and GameStop.

“On behalf of the entire global team at PlayStation, I want to thank you for your unprecedented support and for making PS4 your next-generation console of choice,” Sony Social Media Director Sid Shuman said on the PlayStation blog in April. “We couldn’t have done this without you! And please keep the feedback coming: we are listening.”

PS4 software sales have totaled more than 20.5 million units via retailers and the PlayStation store as of April 13. The PlayStation 4, which Sony launched in North America on Nov. 15, reportedly also sold 1 million units within the first 24 hours of its launch, and it sold 2.1 million consoles internationally as of early December. One week later, the Microsoft launched the Xbox One in 13 countries on Nov. 22. Microsoft Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer Yusuf Mehdi made an announcement in January about the Xbox One's sales, saying the console sold 3 million units by the end of December 2013.