Xbox 360 beating PS3 by 8m, says MS

By Ellie Gibson Published 16 January, 2009

Claims to be winning in both EU and US.

Microsoft has said its internal figures show 28 million Xbox 360 consoles have now been sold worldwide - putting it ahead of the PS3 by 8 million units.

The company is also claiming the lead in the US is 7 million, while it's ahead in Europe by 1 million.

The news comes after NPD released sales data for December showing 360 outsold PS3 by 2 to 1.

The Wii is still beating the pair of them, but according to Microsoft, NPD puts the total lifetime spending for Xbox 360 at USD 13.2 billion compared to USD 10.8 billion for Wii. The figure for PS3 stands at USD 6.1 billion.

Microsoft reports that Live now has more than 17 million active members, who have racked up 10 billion hours since launch. The 1.5 million concurrent players landmark has also been hit.

"Our goal for 2008 was to reach new audiences by bringing ground-breaking games and entertainment to Xbox 360," said Microsoft's Don Mattrick. That and making some money, presumably.

"Looking forward, new waves of innovation will extend our position as the global leader in interactive entertainment."

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 (63) Latest comment 3 years ago

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

  • Les #1 3 years ago

    "The company is also claiming the lead in the US is 7 million, while it's ahead in Europe by 1 million."

    Minus about 2m or something in Japan adds up to just a 6m lead, doesn't it? Or is Japan no longer part of the world?

  • Xerx3s #2 3 years ago

    Errr, run this by me: they are 8 million ahead. 7 in the US, 1 in Europe. In Japan sony however is 3 million ahead, surely the sum would then be (7+1)-3=5?
    Edited by 1 at 16/01/09 @ 08:44

  • DFawkes #3 3 years ago

    I still never trust figures from the companies themselves, since they always seem like they're for shareholders, not us. Nice to see gaming still doing so well though.

  • lambtron #4 3 years ago

    Err Xerxes you might want to take another look at that sum.

    :0

  • muscleblade #5 3 years ago

    Dont forget Australia. Whos leading there?

  • The_vorlon_man #6 3 years ago

    OF COURSE THE BLOODY LIFETIME SPENDING IS MORE FOR THE 360! The Wii has been on the market 1 year less! That and the games are cheaper!


    So MS are still ignoring the elephant in the room then eh?


    Edited by 1 at 16/01/09 @ 08:46

  • Xerx3s #7 3 years ago

    NINJA-yousawnothing-EDIT!

  • The_vorlon_man #8 3 years ago

    Xerx3s:

    If it doesnt fit in with MS boasting credentials, they just ingore it.

    Witness: Wii outselling 360 by more than 2:1 over the holiday buying season, and yet MS decide to concentrate on bashing the PS3, which costs twice as much as the 360.


  • the_dudefather #9 3 years ago

    @tomnol

    my enjoyment of games stems from how many copies or consoles are sold

    Okami and the Dreamcast suck btw ;P

  • warbo #10 3 years ago

    Les/Xerx3s, the difference in the US and Europe combined being 8 million means that total sales in the other territories must be roughly even.

    28 million sold worldwide versus 20 million means the 360 has an 8 million unit lead.

  • pommak #11 3 years ago

    Corporate bullcrap. Would be nice if you could make a separated section for these "news" and hide them away from the main page.

  • spammage #12 3 years ago

    "Les/Xerx3s, the difference in the US and Europe combined being 8 million means that total sales in the other territories must be roughly even.

    28 million sold worldwide versus 20 million means the 360 has an 8 million unit lead. "

    Yes, as we all know, the 360 and PS3 have sold roughly the same amount of units in Japan.......

  • Les #13 3 years ago

    "Les/Xerx3s, the difference in the US and Europe combined being 8 million means that total sales in the other territories must be roughly even."

    Given that for MS Europe includes the modded 360 loving Middle East I seriously doubt that the part of the world that's still left is big enough to compensate for the surplus of PS3 in the third biggest video game market... But who knows.

  • CreepinJesus #14 3 years ago

    @lambtron,

    "Err Xerxes you might want to take another look at that sum."

    Err... YOU might want to take another look at that sum.

    Edit: now, I see the edit he did... sad face.
    Edited by 1 at 16/01/09 @ 09:08

  • bioreit #15 3 years ago

    @ CrrepinJesus

    Welcome to the world of comments-editing. Thanks for stopping by.

  • Xerx3s #16 3 years ago

    You see, nobody saw a thing

    /disappears in a puff of smoke

  • DjFlex52 #17 3 years ago

    Witness: Wii outselling 360 by more than 2:1 over the holiday buying season, and yet MS decide to concentrate on bashing the PS3, which costs twice as much as the 360.

    @The_vorlon_man

    So now the PS3 is twice as much as the 360? Just last week Sony was claiming the 360 was more expensive than the PS3.
    Boy oh boy.....talk about spinning out of control ;P

    At least MS has someone to bash....poor Sony, they're on bottom so who can they bash?

  • El-Dev #18 3 years ago

    Playstation3 has sold 20m in just over 2 years while 360 has sold 28m in over 3 years.

    If Sony sell more than 28m in a 3 year period will it still be "EPICFAILSONYLOL" or do people not take logic and simple maths into consideration?

  • interceptor #19 3 years ago

    Remember folks, companies make their money from selling software. The consoles themselves are often loss-leaders.

    Fact is, as well as having a bigger installed userbase in US and Europe, 360 owners are buying more games.

    Also, considering how totally dominant the Playstation brand was in Europe last gen, this is an impressive achievement by MS.

  • des #20 3 years ago

    The gap is getting bigger,interesting...

  • NotSoSlim #21 3 years ago

    Has the 3 million lead i Japan been ignored? or am i missing something?

  • Petulant_Radish #22 3 years ago

    Japan is a lie.

  • NotSoSlim #23 3 years ago

    Ok thats the reason then

  • Negotiator #24 3 years ago

    Good news, good news, you see Sony are in big trouble they lose shit loads of money every time they sell a PS3. Bleeding money that they can't afford, MS on the other hand make money on the 360 plus at the moment the 360 is outselling the PS3 worldwide.

  • Widge #25 3 years ago

    All companies are going to publish stats that show them in the best possible light. Quite why we get all miffy about it month in month out is a mystery. Perhaps our comprehension gets wiped each month so each time its like a whole new world of fresh outrage.

  • NotSoSlim #26 3 years ago

    Negotiator

    Sony do not lose shit load they should break even by march which is when the 45nm chip should be ready.
    Edited by 2 at 16/01/09 @ 10:44

  • El-Dev #27 3 years ago

    "MS on the other hand make money on the 360."

    Bullshit.

    The only reason they are claiming to make a profit is because the wrote-off $0.5bn that it cost them for all the extended warranties to cover their faulty product.

  • CreepinJesus #28 3 years ago

    @NotSoSlim

    45nm.. not mm :) A 45mm chip would be stone-age computing!

  • NotSoSlim #29 3 years ago

    ''45nm.. not mm :) A 45mm chip would be stone-age computing!''

    lol and edited

  • warbo #30 3 years ago

    NotSoSlim: "Has the 3 million lead i Japan been ignored? or am i missing something?"

    No, PS3 hasn't even sold 3 million in total there yet. The difference is ~1.85 million. Xbox 360 has an 8 million unit lead wordwide.

    Japan lifetime to date numbers from MediaCreate:

    PS3: 2,711,226
    360: 860,788



  • sneetch #31 3 years ago

    In related news Microsoft's dad is bigger than Sony's dad and is a pilot!

  • NotSoSlim #32 3 years ago

    warbo

    That means its about 6 million then as the article mentions nothing about Japan. Numbers do not add up

  • spudsbuckley #33 3 years ago

    Do the numbers that MS published include the amount of consoles they had to send out to replace the ones that broke down on people? Do they count them as sales as well?

    :D

  • Sunyavadin #34 3 years ago

    PS3 - 2 million lead over 360 in Japan, 0.5 million in Europe
    360 - 6.5 million lead over PS3 in US

    Total: 4 million lead worldwide for 360.


    Putting it only 23 million BEHIND the Wii.....

  • Petulant_Radish #35 3 years ago

    El Dev,

    Just because Microsoft wrote off a large debt does not mean that they do not make a small profit on each unit sold, because they do, whether this balances their books or not is a different matter though I have a feeling you may wish to pay attention to the words ‘wrote off’.

  • Raz76 #36 3 years ago

    There are parts of the world that aren't America, Europe or Japan, too...

  • sneetch #37 3 years ago

    @farticusmaximus

    You still would though, admit it. ;)

  • spudsbuckley #38 3 years ago

    There are parts of the world that aren't America, Europe or Japan, too...

    Yeah but they're irrlevant in terms of their impact on console sales.

  • The_vorlon_man #39 3 years ago

    farticusmaximus:

    Oh of course. All the fanboys own HD consoles, so it's more likely that they'll get reams and reams of internet arguing about it.

    Wii owners tend not to 'do' forums.

  • Raz76 #40 3 years ago

    There are parts of the world that aren't America, Europe or Japan, too...

    Yeah but they're irrlevant in terms of their impact on console sales.

    I dont think they're completely irrelevant. Actually my guess is Microsoft figures that its lead in the rest of the world outside these markets is big enough to offset the PS3 lead in Japan.

  • bonker #41 3 years ago

    "modded 360 loving Middle East"

    What??

  • ronuds #42 3 years ago

    You all realize that more than 3 countries exist, and MS obviously isn't commenting on them because the #'s are so small? But added up I'm sure they could come to a couple million.

    If I were MS, I wouldn't compare the 360's sales to the Wii's either. I reject the notion that just because they're both consoles means they appeal to the same audiences - which these two SO OBVIOUSLY do not. Not to mention but their sales don't seem to be in any way in correlation with one another, which you would think might be the case of two directly competing products? But you keep bragging to yourselves, it's fun to watch....especially because you're a 1 person band, seeing as not many people who are serious enough about games to visit gaming forums really care much about the Wii.

  • DjFlex52 #43 3 years ago

    MS are putting a brave face on how well they are doing, because its certainly not the runaway success they would have hoped for.

    @retibra

    You're kidding, right? MS lost the last generation by over 100 million consoles and now they're putting on a brave face for outselling the PS3 by 8 million this generation? How could they have expected a runaway success against the beast that WAS Sony?
    This is exactly what they hoped for.....even better, imho....considering that early on they had bigtime hardware failures.

  • Sunyavadin #44 3 years ago

    @ Raz76
    There are parts of the world that aren't America, Europe or Japan, too...

    Yes, but 360 and PS3 sales are roughly equal for South America, Africa, Australia, and the others when you total them up. And I didn't want to highlight that the Wii is also outselling them both by a rather serious margin in them too.

  • ronuds #45 3 years ago

    "Yes, but 360 and PS3 sales are roughly equal for South America, Africa, Australia, and the others when you total them up. And I didn't want to highlight that the Wii is also outselling them both by a rather serious margin in them too."

    Since you seem to be the only person in the entirety of the universe to have these figures, mind sharing them? Or, dear God, please don't tell me you're going by something like vg chartz who has no better access to the numbers than you or I (unless you're someone in the industry who has insider info.)?

    Also, the Wii's #'s are insignificant to Sony and MS except for those who want to trash MS for boasting about good sales. They aren't direct competitors and I'll go to my grave believing that (mostly because it's true...looking at business models, etc.).

  • VampiricEye #46 3 years ago

    ronuds: "You all realize that more than 3 countries exist..."

    Since when did Europe become a country?:)

  • Raz76 #47 3 years ago

    @Sunyavadin

    "And I didn't want to highlight that the Wii is also outselling them both by a rather serious margin in them too"

    What has that got to do with anything I was saying? A lot of people seemed to think there had to be a flaw in the numbers reported by the article, and I was just pointing out that it wasn't necessarily the case.

  • ronuds #48 3 years ago

    "Since when did Europe become a country?:)"

    Touche! :p

    "Well, that wouldn't be hard considering the console came out way before the PS3."

    They've increased their lead since the PS3 was released...

  • Les #49 3 years ago

    "A lot of people seemed to think there had to be a flaw in the numbers reported by the article, and I was just pointing out that it wasn't necessarily the case."

    I consider the numbers not being complete a rather big flaw, taking away the last shreds of credibility a PR message like this has.

  • Calgon #50 3 years ago

    I love how people go on about the year head start 360 had, do these people have selective memories?

    The 360 was launched early, so getting people to adopt to the"next-gen" adoption was even harder than it normally is but to MS' credit they sold the next gen better than Sony did(Wii cleaned house with both of them on that mark and they didnt even need compelling games; the concept itself was appealing enough to gamers and none gamers... its no wonder some hardcore gamers feel hard done by on the Wii, it's because they expected so much more!)... with actual games instead of empty promises. Theres no like for like comparison for 360s first year to PS3s and Wiis. Just accept the situation as it is, MS have an 8 million lead over Sony which is an increase rather than a decrease... something that no amount of spinning by Sony fanboys can get around. Sony may have slight chance of taking second place but it doesnt really look likely IF things continue as they are and the lead isnt all that huge between them and never will be whoever finnishes 2nd... because of the Wii.

    What we have is people spinning the facts to a way that makes them feel better about their favourite, nothing new.

    MS have done more than most thought they would before this generation kicked off, Nintendo were the biggest suprise yes but the people bringing that up every time people compare MS and Sony's positions are diverting attention away from accepting what MS have acheived.

    In closing...

    Wiis first and will deffinately finnish first, 360s second and will probably finnish second and Sonys third and will finnish third unless they can really start to turn things around(really there is nothing I can see from them so far that will do it) what is there left to argue about?


    Edited by 1 at 16/01/09 @ 19:19

  • ronuds #51 3 years ago

    @ Zero_Cool
    "Yeah, because it was released before the PS3. Are you getting this?!"

    I don't think YOU'RE getting it, so I'll do my best to explain. When the PS3 launched, the 360 had sold around 7m units up to that point - meaning they had a 7m unit lead. They now have an 8m unit lead. Get what I'M saying here? They've increased their lead by 1m units since the launch of the PS3, thus they've sold 1m more 360's than PS3's since its 1st day on the market.

    Get where I'm coming from?

  • El-Dev #52 3 years ago

    Petulant-Radish,

    Yes I do pay attention to the words "wrote off", they're not including this figure when they talk about 360 profits as they don't want to admit that overall they haven't made a profit in 2 generations of consoles so far. They do make profit on each console sold, but so far it hasn't been enough to cover all costs related to the console.

  • Rash' #53 3 years ago

    i tire of these dumb arguments. bottom line is until PS3 drops in price no one can contest the platforms growth potential. MS by contrast must be disappointed their drastic yet necessary price cuts haven't had a bigger impact on sales. they have as we all know remained flat YoY.

  • vgadict #54 3 years ago

    minus 25% RROD 21 million xbox

  • vegard #55 3 years ago

    "Wii owners tend not to 'do' forums."

    and black people only eat fried chicken and water melons, right?

  • tnt_2008smum #56 3 years ago

    Ha! Give it up ronuds zero_tool is a fucking fanboy moron!
    Edited by 1 at 17/01/09 @ 09:06

  • Ghettomurph #57 3 years ago

    Who really cares about sales figures anyway? All I know is that my 360 gets played on an almost daily basis but my Wii hasn't been turned on for about 4 months and my PS3 just gets used for Blu Rays and the odd game of LBP or WipEout HD.

  • Rash' #58 3 years ago

    Ghetto, no MGS? For shame! ;o)

  • subtlesnake #59 3 years ago

    "Yes I do pay attention to the words "wrote off", they're not including this figure when they talk about 360 profits as they don't want to admit that overall they haven't made a profit in 2 generations of consoles so far. They do make profit on each console sold, but so far it hasn't been enough to cover all costs related to the console."

    No, but they're not claiming that the Xbox project itself has broken even. What they're saying is that they're now making an operating profit each quarter, which is true (the last 4/5 quarters have been profitable), and means that their losses are shrinking. This is significant because it means that eventually they'll make back their investment on the 360.

    While, Sony on the other hand continues to lose money on the PS3.

  • Calgon #60 3 years ago

    subtlesnake carefull they dont like it when you ruin their spinny spinny.

  • BonzoBanana #61 3 years ago

    13.2 billion spent on xbox 360 in total and they are still meant to be making a huge loss in this generation. I do realise that 13.2 billion includes tax, retailer margins, subsidised hardware, massive repair bills and third party software and hardware. You look at those wii figures and you think how much of that is going back to nintendo, they must be rolling in it. They're probably wiping their arses with wads of cash.

  • Calgon #62 3 years ago

    Bonzo where did you hear MS are taking a huge loss? Wheres the loss coming from? Sony are the ones taking the Huge loss MS might not only break even but make a tidy profit on this generation, huge improvement over last gen.

    Nintendo are selling so much hardware that they dont seem to be too fussed about selling the most software, yes they are raking it in, if it were anyone else though(MS or Sony) they'd be blasted for sitting back maybe even a bit of FUD about them being the end of the games industry for traditional gamers.
    Edited by 1 at 19/01/09 @ 12:57

  • Penguins20 #63 3 years ago

    I used to be a proper Sony Fan-girl previous gen, but with the PS3 turning out to be a very expensive piece of kit, I've gone over to the Dark Side. Or Green Side, whatever. MS have achieved more with the 360 than I thought they would, having been expecting a gradual eating-into of Sony's market rather than a straight overtaking manouver. So, well done MS. Much as I would have liked to have backed Sony this time out, I just didn't have the money, and I think this reflects the story of many a proud PS2 owner. To their credit, PS3 seem to be doing OK - not the Dreamcast disaster I predicted when I saw the price tag - and so I think they should be happy with the result. A cheaper, more cheaply produced console with a wider range of games was always logically going to outsell an expensive piece of hardware that was slow to get off the ground. The Wii was rather a surprise hit, but I'm frankly rather disappointed with ours. It caught the gremlins, (a graphics chip malfunction) and the Xbox lives on...touch wood.