We're over four years into the lifespan of the PlayStation 3, so where does it stand?
The latest numbers were revealed during the PlayStation Network Analysis panel at GDC 11, where SCEA digital distribution manager Pierre Gravereau displayed the stats: 41.6 million PS3 consoles sold worldwide, more than 80% are connected to the internet and there are over 70 million PSN accounts. The PSN was extremely successful in 2010; Gravereau said Store traffic increased by 60% compared to 2009 and Sony benefited by a 70% increase in revenue. The PSN has indeed become a hot spot for PS3 owners; the number of demos, trailers, games, and pieces of media has risen drastically over the years and we're hoping you contributed to the Gamers' Choice Awards this year.
Also, don't forget Sony plans to bring the PSN to more consumers in the near future, thanks to new programs and partnerships; that PlayStation logo is really going to get around. As for the sales tally, many think it's inevitable that the PS3 will eventually pass the 360 in terms of overall numbers. Will it happen this year…?
Yeah, I voted for the picks. Looking forward to March 7!
Winning!……..soon.
I was kinda hoping that was a Charlie Sheen reference….I couldn't tell though.
Winning….now. Seriously, MS can't keep the charade up for much longer.
Sony only knows one speed: Go!
It won't matter to Xbots until PS3 beats 360 just in the US…per the too common simple-minded American thinking that the rest of the world doesn't matter.
xnonsuchx –
As opposed to the simple minded people who stereotype Americans because of a few idiots?
I think you misread, max. I was saying too many Americans seem to think that, not that most did, but I guess the wording could be read as you seem to have.
To me, it's all about the games that I can find on the PS3 exclusively.
I believe the average PS3 user understands and sees that gaming goes beyond what you can find on the other console.
I have made like 70 accounts so im not sure accounts show data correctly
The data is generally accurate. The vast majority of people do not create multiple PSN accounts.
For the record, I have only 1 account.
2nd – Why do you need 70 accounts??? How does that help you out?
Why in the world would you make 70 accounts? I have never heard of that before.
I have 3 on my PS3. One for me, one for my wife, and another for a "guest" to my PS3. It's nice! My visiting friends and family have collectively reached level 5 in trophy level! ^.^
Are you one of those people who stalks other PSN accounts and creates a new account every time he is banned?
@ Dirty
You know, you would've made a more believable case if you said something like 3 or 4, but 70? Seems to me that you're simply making up info that supports you knocking on Sony's success.
I have 4 accounts. Each for a different region. The Hong Kong account was a waste of time. Some member on here claimed you could get the KZ3 demo early through the HK PSN. I signed up for a HK PSN and no KZ3 demo…I was duped
Didn't Sony say that that SOLD 46 million at one point?
Yeah, SCEJ said that they had sold something like 46.7 million units worldwide. Don't know exactly what is up with that. Maybe they were misquoted or meant to say that they had shipped that many units worldwide
41.6 million sold – I can remember a time when industry analysts predicted the PS3 wouldn't even sell that many – lifetime. I can also remember many times when certain industry voices suggested that the PS3 would disappear.
Seems those voices were wrong.
I agree with Max about the influence of exclusives. Contrary to the assertions of many experts and analysts, exclusive games are extremely important now, perhaps more than before. They are far from disappearing their role has not diminished, it's been heightened.
Well, after a tad bit of research, I'll go ahead and correct myself. The actual sales of PS3 have hit 50 million units now. Many analysts stated categorically that the PS3 would never hit 50 million units.
It should be noted that 50 million units after 4 and a bit years, puts the PS3 on schedule to hit at least 100 million units by the end of it's life. Sony's own figures show the picture nicely. The FY2010 sales of PS3 already total more than 12 million units with only three quarters reported. Sony are on schedule to sell about 15 million PS3s in F2010 – as they predicted they would. On that pace, they can sell at least that many in FY2011, and a similar number in FY2012. Even if sales decline gradually there after, the PS3 would be likely to eclipse 120 million units sold in it's lifetime. Not bad for a console tagged as a failure by all and sundry.
Since the actual sales at the end of Dec 2010 were 47.9 million units, perhaps Ben will update the story and include the link to the SCEI PS3 sales data page.
Last edited by TheHighlander on 3/3/2011 11:53:09 AM
Agreed. One might ask, "If exclusives were to truly disappear, what would be the point of having different consoles?
i thought Sony said in december that the figures were closer to 46 million too? slightly confused about the actual sold figure now.
Actually it's near 48 million sold at the close of 2010.
http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/data/bizdataps3_sale_e.html
It's actually 48 million or so sold by the close of 2010 (see the link I posted above).
The number given here is as at the end of Q2 2010.
The official numbers of units sold by Sony are 47.9 million by the end of 2010, and that includes 6.3 million sold during Q3 2010 (ending Dec 31 2010).
The number given here is out of date, and actually corresponds to the number of units sold at the end of Q2 2010 (ending Sep 30 2010) which are 47.9 million minus the Q3 sales of 6.3 million, which equals 41.6 million units – as stated on the slide presented at the GDC.
So, actually, PS3 has sold more 50 million units *now* since they'd already hit 48 million at the end of 2010, and the global sales reported from January and February push the total past 50 million.
Why would they even give numbers from Q2 2010 at this time? Surely they'd know that people would see that as current sales
Doom, I don't know that answer. but I do know that different divisions of large corporates do not always use the same, up to date, figures. It seems like it was simply an oversight.
All I can say is that the data is the data, and 41.6 million is the number sold at the end of Q2 FY2010, the total sold at the end of Q3 2010 is 47.9 million, and with the January and February sales, PS3 has clipped past 50 million units by now (or very near it).
"many think it's inevitable that the PS3 will eventually pass the 360 in terms of overall numbers. Will it happen this year…?"
The 360 is outselling it at a ratio currently of 2 to 1. With that mind the obvious answer is no.
In the end the PS3 will get close to the 360, but outsell then no.
You need to pay attention to more than the NA sales data my friend.
Theres this planet called 'Earth'
its quite large
Some1 didn't pay attention in math class.
Lol! Owned again.
Where are you getting those numbers, it's not even selling that well in the U.S.A.
…constant arbitrary behavior doesn't prove knowledge.
Kraygen, he just makes stuff up.
@A2k78
Give me your source.
@A2k78
Give me some of what you're smoking.
A2k78 is a crack-pot.
Last edited by pillz81 on 3/7/2011 11:21:24 AM
Not surprising really
PS1 & PS2 both sold 120 million plus units each so i don't see why the PS3 can't.
Lots of interesting information today….
Just an interesting tidbit, but PS2 sales continue to be strong, last year Sony says they sold 7.3 million of the blighters, and this year they look on course to sell between 6.5 and 7 million of them. PS2 sales are on a gradual decline, almost in sync with the increase in PS3 sales.
http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/data/bizdataps2_sale_e.html
PSP has sold 6.3 million units during FY2010, and looks set to have it's second year of declining sales since peaking in 2008 with 14.1 million units. Judging from the figures, PSP will hit about 8 million units in FY2010, but with the recent price cut things might improve. although the fact that NGP is on the horizon may slow things down. That said, at $129.99 the PSP is an excellent deal, so who knows.
http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/data/bizdatapsp_sale_e.html
Last edited by TheHighlander on 3/3/2011 12:00:45 PM
I'd say by the end of the year the PS3 will outsell the 360. Unless M$ finally announces some exclusives for their machine. Either way, it'll be close and one system had a year's head start and a 33% failure rate to boost resales. So which really filled more households w/ it console excluding replacement sales? I think Sony did…like last year.
Last edited by King James on 3/3/2011 12:21:07 PM
Precisely.
Conmsidering that XBL was only announced to go past 30 million at CES2011, you have to wonder how many of the 360s sold are actually active. You need an XBL silver account just to download firmware updates on 360, and a gold account to play. Since MS counts both Silver and gold members in the 30 million number, you really have to wonder why the total number of XBL accounts isn't higher, especially as it's the route to firmware updates. Not only that but Sony estimates that 80% of PS3s are connected to the Intenet, if a similar % of Xbox 360s are networked, that would mean that you ought to see many more than 30 million XBL users. Even if you scale the number of members of XBL assuming 1 account per Xbox (which is a false assumption since there are many times when there are more than one account on an Xbox), at an 80% Internet connectivity rate, that's only about 38 million. Does that mean that there are only 38 million live xbox360s around?
Once you start digging into the XBL numbers it get's interesting. Wonder how many XBL Gold accounts there actually are? In December 2010 MS indicated that roughly half (56%) of all XBL members are Gold accounts. So if there are 30 million or so XBL accounts, that means that there are only 17 million or so Gold accout holders.
17 million Xbox360 players play online, the others don't? Only 30 million of the apparent 50 million 360s sold are even signed up for XBL Silver? That just doesn't add up. that would mean that only 60% of 360s are connected online, and less than 40% of Xbox 360 owners have a Gold membership.
What now? Wait a minute, if the 360 is doing so well, why is it that the underlying numbers are so poor? There's something not quite right with this picture. Perhaps it's the fact that if you only look at consoles sold you're missing something very important. The numbers for the 360 are heavily skewed by replacement purchases, and during the Kinect/squat 360 launch there has been a monster refresh cycle with owners of older units updating. I have no hard evidence for that, but the numbers are odd, especially when you start looking into the XBL numbers. That number of XBL Silver accounts is most revealing of all, since Silver is free, like PSN is free (although without the ability to Play online unlike PSN which is free, free, free and free).
If I were an analyst in the industry, I might be writing some alarming reports about MS right about now.
Why does every keep saying that 360's numbers are greatly skewed because of replacement consoles? I've had the "red ring of death" twice now, and both times I sent in my console and they either fixed it or sent me a new one because it was still under their extended warranty. This has happened to a few of my friends and they all sent it back and got new ones.
Granted I know thats a *VERY* small sample size but I have never heard of people's Xboxs crapping out and then just hoping in the car to WalMart to buy a brand new one. I know that some would obviously do this (dumb people) and I also know that there really isn't anyway for MS, analysts, or you or I to provide numbers for replacement consoles either.
One of my best friends – that I'm trying to convert – has 3 Xboxs. A red one (the Gears of War one?), a regular white one, and the new small one w/ the PS3 finish and a Kinect.
Why does he have so many? B/c the red one's fried, the white one overheats, and M$ packaged up a nice smaller Xbox (w/ the PS3 finish) with a Kinect…so he decided to buy one.
He doesn't play the Kinect game it comes. And controlling ESPN3 w/ ur hand may feel cool at 1st but after 30 seconds you realize it feels stupid and you could've rewinded the video faster and w/ less effort with a…wait for it…REMOTE!
Doing the math. I know he's spent over $1000 on his Xbox. And thats not even counts the separate $200 blu-ray player he has. He falls for the M$ trap. And he is the reason why the Xbox360 "sells better" than the PS3.
Oh and @Jimmy
Nice name btw. I can name 3 other ppl who I know personally, that were out-of-warranty and had to buy 1-3 extra 360s.
Last edited by King James on 3/3/2011 1:25:35 PM
Jimmy, a lot of people own more than one Xbox so they have one while another is getting fixed. There a lot of people who get fed up with sending their Xbox in every time it breaks so they think the best thing to do is just to buy another one hoping that the newer model will won't fail as often. The numbers are skewed. You only need to look at MS's software sales compared to their hardware sales. They sell a lot more hardware than software which indicates people are replacing or adding consoles to their house hold and not buying games.
@ King James, nice name yourself.
Like I said I'm sure there are people out there that have just purchased more than 1 Xbox once theirs broke down. But Microsoft was pretty good about advertising their extended warranty and what to do if your 360 RROD'd. Theres even an entire section on the xbox website dedicated to hardware failure. It was mostly just damage control for MS to put this much PR/marketing money into that, but I feel like most casual gamers would be less inclined to plop down $200-$300 on a new console if the one they had just broke. I guess if you were no longer covered by the warranty you'd be effed, but they extended it to 3 years past the date of your last hardware failure.
"I guess if you were no longer covered by the warranty you'd be effed,"
Again though, how many of those people just say screw it and buy a new console because they are sick of sending their Xbox in a few times within that 3 year span? You have to remember too for the first 2 years of the Xbox's life, MS didn't offer a 3 year warranty. Only the normal one year that comes with any consumer electronic device. I know a lot of people, regardless of the 3 year warranty who went out and simply bought a new Xbox because they were sick of playing the refurbished game with MS. Their line of thinking was the newer models must be better hardware so they decided to fork over more money for another brand new Xbox even though the other was still under warranty. It's lame having to send your console in and having to wait for a replacement. I can understand why people would just go out and buy another one(though I didn't, I gave up after the first RROD and E74 error). Most of my friends who play Xbox own more than one.
Last edited by Jawknee on 3/3/2011 1:52:43 PM
Jawknee,
I know that people do that. My point is that I don't think that the NUMBER of people that choose to buy a new 360 over waiting the 2-3 weeks it takes for the replacement unit to come is statistically significant in skewing the console numbers. I could be wrong, I could be right, there really is no way to prove it just by "asking your friends what they did".
Of coursing my experience alone doesn't create concrete facts. Refute Highlanders points. He makes a more convincing argument than I.
The problem with Highlander's argument is that he's assuming that Xbox users are at 80% connectivity rate- the same as PS3. Given that the original 360s don't have built in Wifi that number could be considerably less. I didn't get Live until I bought the wireless adapater and at $70-100 I don't know how many people buy that add-on.
It could be very possible that only 60% are connected to the internet based on that alone.
Jimmy,
Read my analysis of the XBL numbers and tell me where the logic and facts are flawed. If MS has sold 50 million 360s to anything close to 50 million individual customers, then why are there only 30 million XBL accounts (Silver or Gold)? Silver is free, and if around 80% of consoles sold are internet connected (Sony's figure – which we have no reason to doubt, nor is there any reason to believe that MS's online % would be different), then where are they all? 80% of 50 million consoles is 40 million connected, except there are only 30 million XBL accounts, so what about that 10 million shortfall eh? Explain that please.
BTW the lack of wireless connectivity is not a reasonable explanation. The 360 has wired ethernet, and has the capability to use a wireless adapter (always has had this capability).
The only explanation that makes any sense is that a significant proportion of consoles have died and been replaced. Alternately, significantly fewer than 80% of Xbox 360s are Internet connected. Or possibly a bit of both. Either way, it points to a major shortfall somewhere.
Last edited by TheHighlander on 3/3/2011 3:21:28 PM