PS5 vs PS4 Sales Comparison in Europe - November 2023 - Sales

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The VGChartz sales comparison series of articles are updated monthly and each one focuses on a different sales comparison using our estimated video game hardware figures. The charts include comparisons between the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch, as well as with older platforms. There are articles based on our worldwide estimates, as well as the US, Europe, and Japan.

This monthly series compares the aligned Europe sales of the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4.

The PlayStation 5 launched in November 2020, while the PlayStation 4 launched in November 2013. This does mean the holiday periods for the two consoles do lineup.

PS5 Vs. PS4 Europe:

Gap change in latest month: 452,983 - PS5

Gap change over last 12 months: 391,066 - PS5

Total Lead: 4,084,165 - PS4

PlayStation 5 Total Sales: 16,197,326

PlayStation 4 Total Sales: 20,281,491

November 2023 is the 37th month the PlayStation 5 has been available for. In the latest month, the gap grew in favor of the PlayStation 5 when compared to the aligned launch of the PlayStation 4 by 452,983 units.

In the last 12 months, the PS5 has outsold the PS4 by 391,066 units. The PS5 is currently behind the PS4 by 4.08 million units.

The PS5 has sold 16.20 million units in 37 months, while the PS4 sold 20.28 million units. Month 37 for the PS5 is November 2023 and for the PS4 is November 2016.

The PS4 crossed 30 million in month 51 and 40 million in month 72. The PS4 has sold 45.87 million units to date in Europe. The PS5 is 29.67 million units behind lifetime PS4 sales in Europe.

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 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.

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jvmkdg (on 28 December 2023)

The ps5 will have a long way to go to surpass the ps4 in Europe. It may never overcome it, although the difference has narrowed in recent months

• +3

Qwark jvmkdg (on 29 December 2023)

Pretty much the PS4 has always had strong sales in Europe, so catching up will be a big challenge

• 0

siebensus4 (on 29 December 2023)

If you consider that Xbox Series is selling worse than Xbox One in Europe and worldwide PS5 lies head-to-head with PS4 launch aligned, this is a bit of a strange development.

• +1

Pemalite siebensus4 (on 01 January 2024)

The Switch is likely gobbling up a significant part of the extra pie... As the 3DS didn't exactly light the world on fire with hardware sales sitting at 76~ million worldwide... The Switch might just double it.

• -1

DonFerrari siebensus4 (on 03 January 2024)

PS5 is doing better in japan, usa and likely rotw

• 0

DonFerrari (on 03 January 2024)

It is recovering but may take until the end of the gen for PS5 to pass PS4.

• 0

hellobion2 (on 31 December 2023)

beautiful just beautiful

• 0

pikashoe (on 28 December 2023)

Glad to see the ps4 is ahead a much better console than the ps5 with way better support from sony. Hopefully sony will improve in the latter half of this gen.

• -11

Zeltaz13 pikashoe (on 28 December 2023)

A much better console? Isn't that a bit harsh on the ps5 even if you like the ps4 more?

• +5

pikashoe Zeltaz13 (on 28 December 2023)

Sorry I think that came across wrong on my part the console itself is great sony's support is disappointing.

• +1

CGI-Quality Zeltaz13 (on 29 December 2023)

Indeed. The PS5 is actually the better console and had better 1st party support out of the gate. By this point in the PS4's life, it didn't have bangers like Forbidden West, Spidey 2 or Ragnarok , for example.

I DO want to see a little more umph in the next few years, but the PS5 is definitely a better machine than its predecessor. On the more important side, it's only behind the PS4 in EU to the degree that it is because it had a bigger challenge in the beginning to conquer (a pandemic will do that). All is said and done, I have little doubt that the PS5 will catch up.

• +5

pikashoe CGI-Quality (on 29 December 2023)

Honestly I considered spidey 2 and ragnorok to both be a bit disappointing not bad but nothing really special either. No where near the level of bloodborne in my opinion. 2 of the games you mentioned are ps4 games. Again I'm talking about proper next gen games which they have made very few of at this point.

• -4

DonFerrari CGI-Quality (on 03 January 2024)

For some people if Sony had cut the PS4 versions the PS5 would be better (if dev started as PS5 only sure I could see the case, but cutting out the old gen version near the end of development wouldn't help at all).

• 0

Hardstuck-Platinum Zeltaz13 (on 30 December 2023)

he was a lot kinder to Xbox in their sales article. He said it was a shame because they had good games this year. If you think Xbox had better games than Sony this year then other than being a fanboy I can't explain it

• +3

pikashoe Hardstuck-Platinum (on 30 December 2023)

Xbox went from releasing pretty much nothing last year to having multiple solid releases this year so yeah they deserve some praise for actually improving. How is it being a fanboy if I preferred Microsofts releases this year. Sony have had better releases than Microsoft for at least a decade before this year. Sorry that I was disappointed with Sony this year, I think they are capable of so much more.

• -1

Hardstuck-Platinum pikashoe (on 30 December 2023)

Their releases were so poorly received that the sales were even worse than last year when they had nothing! If they had good releases the sales would reflect that! Halo sold systems because it was good! If they had good games this year it would have sold better than last year but it isn't because they didn't release good games!

• +3

pikashoe Hardstuck-Platinum (on 30 December 2023)

The only poorly received game they had this year was redfall. Aside from that everything reviewed pretty well. Personally I found spider man 2 to be quite disappointing, not a bad game but nothing particularly special either.

• -4

Hardstuck-Platinum pikashoe (on 30 December 2023)

If Xbox had better releases this year why did PS5 outsell it 3-1 this year? You can't get 3-1 sales off of brand name alone. You need the games too. It wasn't just redfall that was poorly received but starfield too. Starfield missed so badly that Xbox's sales have tanked to levels not seen since 2006. You think it's a coincidence that starfield disappointed and xbox are having their worst sales since 2006?

• +3

pikashoe Hardstuck-Platinum (on 30 December 2023)

They did that off of a decade of good will with a long line of games that have been well received while Microsoft have had a decade of shitting the bed. Mix into that xbox having pretty severe stock issues throughout the year. That's how we get the 3-1 figure. Starfield is far from a perfect game but I had plenty of fun with it and the game reviewed pretty decently, honestly I preferred it to spider man 2. I don't think I could possibly be considered a fanboy for xbox considering the series x is my first xbox console and I've owned every sony home console lol.

• -1

Hardstuck-Platinum pikashoe (on 30 December 2023)

Xbox has had no stock issues in 2023. Show me an article saying Xbox has had stock issues in 2023

• +2

pikashoe Hardstuck-Platinum (on 30 December 2023)

https://tech4gamers.com/microsoft-xbox-series-x-supply-problems/
https://www.vintageisthenewold.com/game-pedia/why-is-it-still-hard-to-get-a-new-xbox
https://www.vintageisthenewold.com/game-pedia/is-xbox-having-a-shortage#:~:text=Why%20is%20Xbox%20sold%20out,now%20that%20is%20slowing%20supply.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/tech.hindustantimes.com/amp/gaming/news/xbox-series-x-will-be-in-short-supply-till-june-at-least-says-microsoft-71612242230188.html
Just a quick Google search

• -1

Hardstuck-Platinum pikashoe (on 30 December 2023)

Not all of those articles are even about this year though. one is last edited in 2022. I think it's a stretch to blame supply in 2023. What will you say when it sells worse in 2024 with no supply issues? That they had no answer to ps5 pro?

• +2

pikashoe Hardstuck-Platinum (on 30 December 2023)

At this point Microsoft have dug a pretty big hole for themselves and it's going to take a long time for them to recover there image. One year of having an ok lineup of games isn't going to do much to help them. Even if Microsoft have better exclusives every year for the rest of the generation I don't think they'll outsell playstation. Sony have cultivated playstation into a very trusted brand while Microsoft have only started recovering from the last generation where they may have permanently tarnished the xbox brand. Sony also has some of the best marketing in the industry. Even if xbox didn't have stock issues this year it still would have been outsold by the ps5 by a large margin.

• -1

DonFerrari pikashoe (on 03 January 2024)

Let's also remember that the titles MS "released" this year is full of things that were already in development before they bought the studios so you can't credit them for "improving their lineup" unless you want to also consider all the moneyhats Sony made to keep the system feed and well FFXVI was one of the best games of the year.

• -1

pikashoe DonFerrari (on 03 January 2024)

Microsoft own these titles and have owned the studios for over 3 years at this point. Meaning most of the development of these games was done under Microsoft. Sony does not own FF or square. I've been pretty respectful here and as I've already said if guys are happy that's fine I'm not and I hope Sony improve over the next few years.

• 0

DekutheEvilClown pikashoe (on 29 December 2023)

Complete nonsense, the first 3 years of software for the PS4 were not impressive, and definitely worse than the first 3 years of the PS5.

A large amount of the PS4’s biggest games came after 3 years. Horizon: Zero Dawn, God of War(2018), Marvel’s Spider-man, Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us pt.II etc.

• +7

pikashoe DekutheEvilClown (on 29 December 2023)

Dude they've released like 4 next games so far. They only released 1 game this year for ps5. Not everything released early on the ps4 was a masterpiece but they were actually releasing next gen games from the start. Ps4 had killzone shadowfall, knack, driveclub, infamous second son, bloodborne, order 1886, until dawn, ratchet and clank, last guardian, uncharted 4 within the same period of time as the ps5 not all great by any means but they were releasing something. Ps5 has Destruction all-stars, returnal, ratchet and clank spider man 2. Like c'mom that is pathetic. I'm not even taking into account all the psn games that they released back then, which completely dwarfs their current output on psn. It's not just sony, it really only feels like this gen is starting this year.

• -7

DekutheEvilClown pikashoe (on 29 December 2023)

Discounting every game that’s cross-gen is stupid. That’s like saying Breath of the wild and Mario kart don’t count as Switch games.

• +4

pikashoe DekutheEvilClown (on 29 December 2023)

I didn't count cross gen games for ps4 either. They released 1 ps5 exclusive this year, you can't seriously think that's good enough. Next years line up isn't exactly inspiring at the moment either. The wii u to switch is an odd comparison considering the wii u is one of nintendos worst selling consoles.

• -4

DekutheEvilClown pikashoe (on 29 December 2023)

Yes, one massive game is enough, why not? They also released an MLB game and Horizon: call of the Mountain for people that are into those things. Additionally they released a large free story DLC for God of War: Ragnarok.

If Sony don’t make games will that even be the end of the world? You can still play BG3, RE4, FFXVI, Alan Wake 2 etc. this year.

• +5

pikashoe DekutheEvilClown (on 29 December 2023)

Yes. If Sony don't release exclusives then what is the point in getting a playstation, sony's first party games are a huge reason why they are successful. For many people the reason they have a playstation is for the 1st party titles.

• -4

Shtinamin_ pikashoe (on 30 December 2023)

That’s the same concept on why someone would even consider getting a Nintendo console. 1st Party Exclusives.

• +2

DekutheEvilClown Shtinamin_ (on 30 December 2023)

Nintendo exclusives are the only reason to buy a Nintendo console for the vast majority of people.

You can’t play Elden Ring, Resident Evil, Call of Duty, Baldur’s Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077 etc etc etc. on a Switch

Historically PS was the best place to play 3rd party games and most of the PS1 and PS2 era had very few big first party games. It was only during the PS4 that Sony became truly renowned for big story driven single player games.

• +2

pikashoe DekutheEvilClown (on 30 December 2023)

That was actually more so during the ps3 era when they couldn't rely as heavily on 3rd parties to sell their consoles.

• -1

Shtinamin_ pikashoe (on 30 December 2023)

Which is one of the reasons why the PS3 is the least selling Playstation home console. Another reason was the price tag. And there are many more.
I wouldn't be trying to compare PS5 to the PS3, it makes the PS5 have a bad connotation.

PS3 had 45 1st party games.

PS4 had 18 1st party games. (Non-cross will belong to the lower generation, since it can play the game).

PS5 has 6 1st party games.
PS5 already has a third of PS4's amount in 3 years. The PS5 has 5 more years unitl the PS6.
Sony is going for a more quality less quantity ideal with their 1st party games. I personally love that, because they can focus and show love for the game.

• +5

pikashoe Shtinamin_ (on 30 December 2023)

That's just straight up not true, ps4 had way more first party titles than that. What are the six for ps5 i can only spot 4 excluding remasters? I'd argue the quality isn't that high, spider man 2 was very obviously rushed in some aspects. Recently they've mostly been releasing very safe sequels. It's fine if you're happy with the current state of sony but for me I feel that they are capable of so much more.

• -2

Shtinamin_ DekutheEvilClown (on 30 December 2023)

Yes, exactly my point, Nintendo consoles are most known for their 1st Party. Sony and Microsoft are known for their 3rd party.

• -1