Xbox One Outsells SNES - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 03 April 2021 / 5,152 Views
Microsoft launched the ninth generation consoles, the Xbox Series X|S, in November 2020, however, that doesn't mean their predecessor, the Xbox One, stopped selling altogether. Sales for the Xbox One have slowed considerably this holiday season, but it has reached a new milestone.
The Xbox One has outsold the lifetime sales of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), according to VGChartz estimates for the week ending December 19. The Xbox One has now sold over an estimated 49.21 million units worldwide. This compares to the SNES with sales of 49.10 million units lifetime.
Breaking down the sales of the Xbox One, it has sold the best in the US with an estimated 29.22 million units sold, followed by Europe with 12.24 million units sold. Breaking down Europe sales even further, it has sold 5.62 million units in the UK, 1.92 million units in Germany, and 1.89 million units in France.
The Xbox One launched in North America, parts of Europe, Australia, and South America in November 2013, and in Japan, China, and other European countries in September 2014. The revision of the console, the Xbox One S, launched in August 2016, while the mid-generation upgraded console, the Xbox One X, launched in November 2017. An All-Digital version of the Xbox One S launched in May 2019. The Xbox One X and Xbox One S All-Digital Edition were discontinued on July 16, 2020.
The SNES launched in Japan in November 1990, North America in August 1991, and the rest of the world throughout 1992. The SNES was discontinued in Europe in 1998, in North America in 1999, and in Japan in 2003.
Despite the current low sales of the Xbox One, it should be able to cross the 50 million mark by the time Microsoft stops selling the console.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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It is a poor milestone considering the period. The size of the market is not comparable.
Yay, I guess?
I disagree, SNES was the top console of the time. Xbox One is not but still found a significant audience.
What if the Wii U sold 50 million? That would be considered a great success compared to what it did, we might even have an actual Nintendo home console if that happened.
The XBOne is going to be compared to the PS3 in the future: an overall decent console that had to deal with the consequences of the initial design and business choices made by its manufacturer throughout its lifespan.
It wont, the ps3 had a great line up with games the xbx1 is in a battle with the Saturn for worse consoles.
Wow, I didn't know that the SNES was manufactured and sold in Japan even after the launch of the GameCube!
Great
Congrats to Microsoft, a good accomplishment. Series X should be able to out perform the Xbox One by 5 to 10 million more units at the end of 9th gen.
Good for Xbox One, it was a mess out the gate but managed to stay relevant in spite of big mistakes. Seems like all the decisions MS has made in recent years should help Series S|X be an ever greater success. Maybe just shy of 62 million like the NES!
about time!
congrats lol!
This is just evidence of how much the video game market has grown over the past 30 years. SNES was one of the greatest consoles of all time, and XB1 is pretty mediocre. As far as consoles from the big 3 go, XB1 takes the #3 spot for worst console ever, with only Virtual Boy, and Wii U being worse.
Whether or not its mediocre depends how you feel about its 1st party, some of which has been quite successful. While the 3rd party content is objectively strong.
Essentially, the Xbox One had a library with very wide appeal and that helped it thrive.
@Mr Puggsly
XB1's problem is that their 3rd party offerings have been the same as PS4/PC, only a little worse. There's a lot of Japanese games that never came to XB1, and a lot of games that eventually found there way there, but were on PC/PS4 for a year or more before. Add in that both PS4 and PC have vastly better exclusives, and it just makes XB1 mediocre overall. Xbox is that generic video game playing device that will play most 3rd party games, but not as many as Sony/PC.
As for 1st party, they are throwing MTX into a lot of their games these days. There is potential for them to get better since they just bought a ton of studios, but games from those studios were already coming to Xbox. Also, there's just something wrong about buying up a piece of media, that you had no hand in creating and being like "This is mine now. Give me credit for it".
And finally, I wouldn't call 50 million sales thriving. I'd say 65 million lifetime is doing fine, and 75 to 80 million is thriving.
I honestly just skimmed over what you read. Ultimately, the Xbox One has a large library of strong content. This is objective, you can't argue out of that. I don't want to argue semantics either.
Failed platforms don't sell 50 million units, that's a respectable audience especially in a market with strong competitors. Our perspective of many platforms would be very different had they achieved 50 million units sold.
Well, I never said it was a failed platform. Calling something strong or good, is a subjective statement. Look up the definition of objective, because you are using the term incorrectly here.
