Xbox One S – a bigger success than the PS4 Slim

The Xbox One S console seems to have been a rousing success for Microsoft, with sales of the PS4 Slim described as ‘slow’.

The Xbox One family of consoles accounted for 71% of all hardware sales last week, up 76% on the same time last year. By comparison the PlayStation 4 took just 19% of the market, down 66% on last year.

That’s particularly impressive given that the PS4 Slim launched on September 15, and yet apparently made little inroad on the Xbox One S – which first launched in August.

Launch week sales of Xbox One S were better by 361%, compared to the launch week of the PS4 Slim. Xbox One sales are also revealed to have increased by 989% from the week before the Xbox One S’s release.

Video game sales figures are never usually released to the public, but the GfK Chart-Track data was passed on to trade paper MCV. They described sales of the PS4 Slim as ‘slow’.

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Although the PlayStation 4 has always been the best-selling console of this generation in the UK, its lead has always been understood to be relatively small. So if Microsoft continue with sales like this it’s perfectly possible the Xbox One could overtake it.

The gap is understood to be even closer in the US, but largely unassailable in Europe, and especially in Japan.

The two most obvious reasons for the success of the Xbox One S were a FIFA 17 bundle, which allowed you to play the game a week early, and the fact that it presented a new incentive for those who had never owned an Xbox One, to give Microsoft’s console a try.

By comparison, many core gamers will have already bought a PlayStation 4, and the PS4 Slim is neither cheaper nor significantly different to the original.

‘It’s great to see how popular both the Xbox One S and the FIFA 17 Xbox One S consoles are with fans, not just over the last week but since the Xbox One S was released in August. 4K video streaming and 4K UHD Blu-ray have been extremely well received by gamers and critics and we believe there is no better value right now for those looking to upgrade their console’, said a no doubt jubilant Harvey Eagle, marketing director of Xbox UK.

‘It’s a fantastic time for gamers with the range of upcoming titles appealing to all audiences, from Gears of War 4 to Skyrim Special Edition and the release this week of the acclaimed Forza Horizon 3. There’s never been a better time to own an Xbox One.’

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