Sony’s PlayStation 4 is on track to outperform Microsoft’s Xbox One by 40% in the next five years, according to Strategy Analytics.
While game console shipments grew 11% year on year in 2014 to 34 million, Sony’s newest console shipped 18.5 million in its first year, with Strategy Analytics forecasting 80 million PS4 shipments by 2019, compared to 57 million for Xbox One.
First year shipments for the PS4 far outpaced PlayStation 3’s 10.5 million units – almost matching the 20.1 million PlayStation 2 devices shipped during the same period of time.
Last year Microsoft sold 12.4 million Xbox Ones, surpassing the 10.4 million Xbox 360 units sold in its first year, while Nintendo Wii U shipped just 5.9 million units in its first year of availability. However, according to Strategy Analytics, the newest Wii console appears to be staging a modest comeback with the release of several key first-party titles.
“Despite reports to the contrary, the game console market is not dead,” said Eric Smith, senior analyst at Connected Home Devices.
“Core gamers have moved faster to this current generation than in any previous generation. The main difference in this generation is that casual gamers who bought a Wii are remaining largely on the side lines as free-to-play casual games and mid-core games on tablets and smartphones have captured this segment of consumers.”
Michael Goodman, service director of Digital Media Strategies, added: “Strong Year One shipments and a quickly growing installed base for PS4 and Xbox One are proving that game consoles are still an essential part of the ecosystem.
“While cloud gaming may appear to obviate the need for expensive hardware at first blush, the more likely scenario will be an enhancement to hardware allowing for very powerful current generation game rendering locally and backward compatibility to large game libraries in the cloud.”
