Xbox One Sales Have Doubled Since 2017 Says NPD, Despite Playstation 4

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Even though the Playstation 4 is still far ahead in this generation’s console war, according to the NPD Group, a data gathering firm, the Xbox One sales have also picked up, doubling since the same time last year. This is good news for Microsoft, which has consistently lagged behind the PS4.

The reasons behind the Xbox One lagging behind the Playstation 4 include everything from a lack of many truly exclusive games (many high-profile games are either available on all consoles or if they’re exclusive also available on the PC), along with the Playstation 4 having better graphics and the after effects of a huge public backlash when the console was first announced.

That announcement included things like the console being unable to play used games, the console’s mandatory Kinect always being on to record your speech, and players having to “check in” once per day in order to keep using their consoles. This turned many players off the Xbox One and heavily impacted Xbox One sales, along with the Playstation 4 having much more appealing games coming out either near launch or at launch.

Since then the Xbox has still not really been able to release any truly exclusive games; though games like Sea of Thieves, Quantum Break, and Gears of War 4 have all been for both the Xbox One and the PC, and Halo 4 and Halo 5: Guardians have also come out, those games haven’t been good enough to serve as huge system-sellers among players, especially since the first three were also available on the PC.

Microsoft has done its best to get rid of a lot of the Xbox One’s more negative features and adding in more positive ones, such as phasing out the Kinect, re-designing the game’s home menu, and adding in the backwards compatibility service, which allows players to play Xbox 360 and original Xbox games.

While there’s no telling if Microsoft will be able to catch up to the Playstation 4 in the last few years of this console generation, the Xbox One sales doubling is still good news for Microsoft.