European Xbox 360 sales hit 10 million

By Ellie Gibson Published 13 November, 2009

A third of "customers" are women, fact fans.

Microsoft has announced that 10 million Xbox 360 consoles have now been sold in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

It's taken four years to reach the 10 million mark. According to Microsoft, Xbox 360 is the only console to achieve year-on-year growth in the EMEA region this year.

The company reports there are more than 20 million Xbox Live users worldwide. They have downloaded over 1 billion pieces of content and movie downloads have doubled in the last year.

Stat fans may also like to know that 60 per cent of Xbox 360 consoles are kept in the living room. Around 35 per cent of Xbox "customers" are women and 64 per cent are over the age of 25.

Microsoft is hoping the launch of Project Natal will give the console a further boost, along with the addition of instant streaming HD movies, Facebook Twitter and Last.fm to Live on Tuesday 17th November.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (28) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • mkreku #1 2 years ago

    Huh? I have a lot of female friends. None of them own an Xbox 360. Who are these women? What are their phone numbers? :)

  • Darren #2 2 years ago

    I have someone in my Friends list who is female but otherwise I don't know any woman personally who owns an Xbox 360. I know a lot who own a Wii however.

    Do Microsoft make these things up? How do they know that approx. 35% of their customers are female anyway? Is that based on surveying a 1,000 people out of 25,000,000 or something? Someone enlighten me, please.

  • bad09 #3 2 years ago

    @ Darren

    They know because we all set up a profile/gamertag.

  • davisorle #4 2 years ago

    Most of my friendlist on XBL is women i know of in person and they ended up getting a 360 over the years. Only a few in my friendlist are ppl i might have met in games etc. I like keeping it that way.The only downside is the way they might start swearing, i cant focous on the game cause it sounds funny hearing them swearing BUT always better than having kiddos doing it. The fact that most ppl with a 360 are adlts is always good news.

  • marilena #5 2 years ago

    But, surely, you can lie in the profile.

  • HermitArcader #6 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:17:39 22-12-2011

  • kendoji #7 2 years ago

    The only person I regularly play with online is a friend of mine who is an extremely hot girl. They are out there!

  • Ace_McCloud #8 2 years ago

    "...and 34 percent of those woman are mums"

    Ellie edited that bit out for some reason.

  • Lee_Morris #9 2 years ago

    I'm sorry but I fail to believe that 1 out of every 3 360 users are female.

    In other news I'm the greatest lover in the world. Why? because I just said so silly.

  • GamesConnoisseur #10 2 years ago

    I would easily believe if the stats are to do with purchasing customer and based on sell through, 1/3 can then make senses being mums, girlfriends or wives getting x360 for their beloved male game obsessing family member as a gift!

    There are a few females in my friend list but a very tiny proportion.

  • TruSmiles #11 2 years ago

    Maybe the stats are skewed. I'm female, and I'm on my third purchased Xbox :\

  • miiiguel #12 2 years ago

    "@bad09 I wonder how many people actually fill out their gamertag truthfully? "

    That's another wrong idea ppl have over internet users. As a matter of fact the large majority write down the truth (sometimes they even write shit they shoud keep for themselfs).

  • frunk #13 2 years ago

    The women percentage does seem high... perhaps there are other reasons...

    Like the "under 16 population" of 360 owners who don't have a credit card and get their mum to open an account on their XBox to make points purchases for them? That would skew figures. Mums are likley to think they have to fill in the info correctly or the CC will not be accepted.

    Coz lets face it Point Cards are a pain in the ass compared to a credit card on the system.

  • miiiguel #14 2 years ago

    If it wasn't for the points system you wouldn't be able to buy stuff from other regions/countries. I know that's not as big a problem as in Portugal, but still for community sake, bear with me...

  • Popzeus #15 2 years ago

    But how many of those 10 million are second or third consoles bought to replace a RROD? Eh?

    I'll stick my neck out here and say several.

  • butler` #16 2 years ago

    My gf got one, played it for a week just for Fable 2, then never used it again :\

  • onyxbox #17 2 years ago

    Must be Mum's buying their kids a console.

  • EffEmmGee #18 2 years ago

    Well last time I checked I'm a female gamer lol!
    Personally I don't know that many other female gamers but from personal experience we don't tend to speak up on Live. Chances are if you're playing online with someone who conveniently doesn't have a mic or doesn't speak they're female. There's more girls than you think!

  • Darren #19 2 years ago

    @ bad09 - I'd forgotten about the profiles/bios but then it's been the best part of six years since I created my original LIVE profile and I haven't really been using my Xbox 360 much this year as it hasn't had many games that interested me that I couldn't get on the PC cheaper (and better!).

    Looking my Gamer profile now though, I see that there is absolutely no mention that I'm even male anyway! Of course my avatar is male but that doesn't mean the creator necessarily is. ;)

  • makeamazing #20 2 years ago

    I know one woman that has an Xbox and she is a fanboy ironically :)

    But that means the other 15-20 people are all men, so I am not convinced by these stats either.
    Edited by 1 at 13/11/09 @ 12:56

  • Stomp224 #21 2 years ago

    35% of customers are female = Mothers buying xboxes + inappropriate game for their 8 year olds, fact fans.

    In my retail experience anyway

  • systems #22 2 years ago

    I know quite a few women with Wiis, and DS, and PSP (and all have a PC). Not a single one with a PS3 or 360 though (out of 50+ friends list). I know a couple with Blu-Ray players who didn't bother with the PS3 route. I agree with the previous posters - there's gotta be a skew on the stats from mums buying for kids. In my youth when I worked in Game there were always lots of mums buying games I'd turned the kid down for already (and they'd be annoyed at me!).

    Or maybe my female friends haven't told me and don't want me scrounging their games?

  • ronuds #23 2 years ago

    This can't be true because I don't personally know any women who have bought a 360. And only when I can provide anecdotal evidence to support something is it a fact.

  • KrispyBacon #24 2 years ago

    Can't imagine many female gamers would even speak on LIVE for fear of harassment.You may be playing agianst females and never know it.

  • makeamazing #25 2 years ago

    Perhaps the stats are "1/3 of all men pretend to be woman"... certainly true of MMOs :D

  • canIdoyabombsforya #26 2 years ago

    Darren
    "Do Microsoft make these things up? How do they know that approx. 35% of their customers are female anyway? Is that based on surveying a 1,000 people out of 25,000,000 or something? Someone enlighten me, please. "

    sometimes the data is collected by EPOS systems, mainland europe stores will often ask for your postcode too, they probably have an M/F option, this is all collated by marketing companies. Then you have stuff being paid for by credit card with Miss/Mrs.


  • Kneesrs #27 2 years ago

    My family has four female gamers (of which I am one) and two male gamers. Five of us have XBL gold and one has a silver membership. My co-worker and her husband each have gamertags and gold memberships. And there's a good number of women on our friends list (besides ourselves).

    I don't know how the survey was conducted, but I think the results are plausible.

  • zedzee #28 2 years ago

    Any ideas how 4 million units in EMEA compares with the PS3 and PS2 in the same territory and product life period?