According to the calculations from the Japanese business and finance paper, Nikkei Business Daily, Sony is leading in global videogame hardware sales figures for the first time in 8 years. It should be noted that “videogame hardware” includes both home console and handheld systems. Spin-offs such as PlayStation branded Xperia handsets were not counted.
The figures for the last year break down as so: Sony sold 18.5m units between the PS2, PS3, PS3, Vita and PSP platforms. Nintendo came in a close second at 16.31m units, with sales shared between the Wii U, Wii, 3DS family(2DS, 3DS, 3DS XL/LL) and DS family (DSi, DS Lite and DS XL/LL). Lagging behind in third is Microsoft with 11.6m sales between the Xbox 360 and Xbox One.
Sony’s lead is in no small part down to the success of the PlayStation 4, which passed the 7m milestone for units sold back in April. Sony appears to be beating Microsoft, who only announced shipped figures of 5m at around the same time Sony gave out their 7m figure; however the exact number of PS4’s sold at this point in time is not publically available.
It appears the PlayStation 4 is finally finding its feet with consumers - and just in time for the quiet inclusion of PS4 PayPal support across North America, Canada, Mexico, Mexico, Chile and Argentina.
Sony still has a long road ahead of it; it was only last month that it turned in red figures for the 10th year in a row - a dire situation that prompted talks of top executives returning their annual bonuses. We expect Sony will be loudly boasting an up-to-date sales figure at their E3 press conference in less than 24 hours. Check back with us for more coverage.
Shehzaan Abdulla
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