Xbox One sales top 5m, but lag behind Sony

Microsoft has hailed a “strong start” to the new generation of video game consoles after revealing it has shipped more than five million of its Xbox One devices to retailers since last year’s launch.

Xbox One: Improving, but still behind Sony. Picture: Contributed

The successor to the Xbox 360 went on sale towards the end of November in 13 countries, including the UK and the US, a week before Japanese rival Sony released its PlayStation 4 game machine.

Sony said on Wednesday that it was struggling to keep up with demand after sales topped seven million as of 6 April.

Yusuf Mehdi, vice-president of marketing, strategy and business for Xbox, said: “The new generation is off to a strong start, with global Xbox One sales outpacing Xbox 360 by more than 60 per cent at the same point in time.”

He added that Xbox One users spend an average of five hours a day on the device, which is touted as an “all-in-one home entertainment system” with voice-activated controls, video-conferencing capabilities and Blu-ray player.

Strong demand for the game machine helped Microsoft deliver better-than-expected revenues of $24.5 billion (£14.6bn) for the three months to the end of December, by which point shipments to retailers had reached 3.9 million units.

The strong performances from PlayStation 4 and Xbox One have piled pressure on Nintendo, once the dominant player in the video game industry but now facing its third consecutive year of losses. In January, the Japanese firm slashed its full-year Wii U sales forecast by almost 70 per cent to 2.8 million.

GARETH MACKIE