Analyst estimates PS5 outsold Xbox Series X|S by "almost 5x" last quarter

A noted industry analyst estimates the PS5 outsold the Xbox Series X and S by a factor of five over the last quarter.

Daniel Ahmad, the director of research and insights at Niko Partners, shared his analyses of Sony's recent earnings report on Twitter, painting a grim picture of Xbox's recent hardware sales compared to its biggest competitor, PlayStation. 

"The PlayStation 5 shipped 4.5 million units in the last quarter," Ahmad said. "According to our estimates, this is almost 5x more than the Xbox Series X|S shipped in the same period."

"This is a bonus one for the console warriors + my rent is due)," he joked.

As Ahmad rightly notes, the gap in sales between PS5 and Xbox Series X/S hasn't historically been this wide, as lifetime to date sales comparisons are closer to 2:1 in Sony's favor. "It's just the past year where the gap has started to widen significantly," he added.

Late last month, Microsoft shared its own financial results and revealed its console sales were down 30% for the quarter. In hindsight, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella may have been getting ahead of the PS5 sales comparisons when he pointed out that Xbox games were ranking on PlayStation store charts "more than any other publisher."

Now is a tumultuous time not just in the video game industry but for Xbox in particular, as the company recently shut down the Bethesda studios behind Redfall, Hi-Fi Rush, and more following a "reprioritization of titles and resources." Although the industry has been pounded by devastating layoffs for many months now - PlayStation itself canceled several unannounced projects and closed a studio in February - the backlash to Xbox's latest restructuring has been particularly loud do the scale of the losses.

It certainly doesn't help matters that revenue from gaming subscriptions have reportedly barely increased in the last two years in the US.