The Xbox One may be lagging behind the PlayStation 4 in terms of lifetime sales, but research from the research firm IDC suggests the two newest versions of the consoles, the Xbox One X and PlayStation 4 Pro, are nearly tied for holiday season interest.
According to The Financial Post, this holiday bump following the Xbox One X’s November launch could be what Microsoft needs to start catching up with Sony’s current-generation console sales and give the Xbox One brand some additional momentum.
Coming up on the 2017 holiday season, the IDC predicts that nearly 45 percent of console-buying shoppers have plans to pick up a mid-generation hardware update like the Xbox One X or PlayStation 4 Pro rather than a basic current generation console or last generation system. All in all, the firm expects to see a grand total of 7 million systems sold within the next two quarters in North America.
That same data shows that the PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X have captured roughly the same amount of interest, with 22.2 percent eyeing the PS4 Pro and 21.6 percent looking to pick up an Xbox One X. Meanwhile, the IDC estimates that the basic PlayStation 4 Slim only has the attention of 13.5 percent of shoppers with the Xbox One coming in behind that at 7.7 percent.
Despite the close holiday competition expected by researchers between the two systems this year, estimates of lifetime sales place the Xbox One at only 33 million units sold, roughly half of the 60.4 million PlayStation 4 consoles sold since launch. The IDC’s research director of gaming and VR/AR Lewis Ward tells The Financial Post however that the research firm suggests the Xbox One X will help Microsoft close that gap.
“What the broader takeaway (from our research) implies is that Microsoft’s gamble is going to pay off,” Ward told The Financial Post. “It does appear to stabilize the slide that Microsoft has been on, which I think is a positive step. It looks like, in North America, that the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X will be neck-and-neck in sales for at least the next six months or so and if that happens, you have to say that’s a win for Microsoft.”
