After years, or actually decades of market dominance in Japan, this generation’s Xbox Series S has outsold the PS in the country. This is a first for both product lines, Japanese gamers have in the past have drifted towards PlayStation and Nintendo consoles.
Alex Aniel, a business manager from Limited Run Games noticed the sudden success of the Xbox Series S in a recent issue of Famitsu.
According to Famitsu, the Xbox Series S moved over 6000 units in the week of May 9th to May 15th while Sony only moved a little over 2000 PS5s in the same timespan, a difference of over three times.
Sony remains ahead in terms of cumulative numbers however, in part thanks to its previous dominance in Japan. Since launch, the PS5 has moved over a million units in Japan, while the Xbox Series S has moved just over a hundred thousand.
While supply chain issues have affected sales of the PS5 worldwide, the fact that the Xbox outsold the PS5 by three times in a week is still noteworthy; even if it’s not yet indicative of an overall trend.
It’s yet unknown why the Xbox Series S has suddenly pulled ahead in weekly sales, whether it’s supply shortages, a change in preference, or possibly related to Sony moving their PlayStation headquarters to California back in 2016.
It will be interesting to see if this trend remains or if it’s simply a one-off event. Thanks to the historically low performance of the Xbox in Japan, Microsoft has plenty of room to improve their sales in the country.
