PS5 Best-Seller, Switch Tops 35M - Europe Hardware Estimates for December 2023 - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 16 January 2024 / 8,927 Views
The PlayStation 5 was the best-selling console in Europe with 1,181,934 units sold for December 2023, according to VGChartz estimates. The PlayStation 5 has now sold an estimated 17.38 million units lifetime in Europe.
The Nintendo Switch sold an estimated 968,760 units to bring its lifetime sales to 35.06 million units. The Xbox Series X|S sold 354,953 units to bring their lifetime sales to 7.34 million units. The PlayStation 4 sold an estimated 10,573 units to bring its lifetime sales to 45.85 million units.
PS5 sales compared to the same month for the PS4 in 2016 are down by nearly 638,000 units, while the Xbox Series X|S compared to the same month for the Xbox One are down by over 274,000 units. PS4 sold 1,819,640 units for the month of December 2016 and Xbox One sales were at 629,033 units.
PlayStation 5 sales compared to the same month a year ago are up by 432,805 (57.8%). Xbox Series X|S sales are down by 71,494 units (-16.8%) and Nintendo Switch sales are down by 245,068 units (-20.2%). The PlayStation 4 is up by 9,076 units (606.3%) year-over-year.
Looking at sales month-on-month, PlayStation 5 sales are down by over 528,000 units, Xbox Series X|S sales are up by nearly 110,000 units, and Nintendo Switch sales are up by over 447,000 units.
2023 year-to-date, the PlayStation 5 has sold an estimated 7.87 million units, the Nintendo Switch has sold 4.24 million units, and the Xbox Series X|S has sold 1.94 million units.
Monthly Sales:
Europe hardware estimates for December 2023 (Followed by lifetime sales):
- PlayStation 5 - 1,181,934 (17,379,260)
- Switch - 968,760 (35,056,124)
- Xbox Series X|S - 354,953 (7,341,779)
- PlayStation 4 - 10,573 (45,845,459)
Weekly Sales:
Europe December 2, 2023 hardware estimates:
- PlayStation 5 - 246,070
- Switch - 188,103
- Xbox Series X|S - 71,548
- PlayStation 4 - 1,925
Europe December 9, 2023 hardware estimates:
- PlayStation 5 - 234,766
- Switch - 180,556
- Xbox Series X|S - 62,022
- PlayStation 4 - 2,161
Europe December 16, 2023 hardware estimates:
- PlayStation 5 - 255,967
- Switch - 210,493
- Xbox Series X|S - 76,383
- PlayStation 4 - 2,488
Europe December 23, 2023 hardware estimates:
- PlayStation 5 - 289,648
- Switch - 267,733
- Xbox Series X|S - 95,818
- PlayStation 4 - 2,787
Europe December 30, 2023 hardware estimates:
- PlayStation 5 - 155,483
- Switch - 121,875
- Xbox Series X|S - 49,182
- PlayStation 4 - 1,212
VGChartz Methodology: Hardware estimates are based on retail sampling and trends in individual countries, which are then extrapolated to represent the wider region. This typically allows us to produce figures that end up being within 10% of the actual totals.
This data is regularly compared against official shipment figures released by the console manufacturers and figures estimated by regional trackers with greater market coverage than ourselves. We then update our own estimates to bring them into line with those figures. This can result in frequent changes often within a short space of time, but we feel it's important to prioritise accuracy over consistency.
Note that our estimates are based on sell-through data (units sold to consumers). In almost all cases the figures released by console manufacturers are based on shipment data (sell-in), where as soon as a device has left the factory and entered the supply chain for delivery it is considered a sale. This is why there is always a difference between the companies’ figures (sell-in) and VGChartz estimates (sell-through), even after we’ve made adjustments. The one exception to that is when a console has been discontinued and the remaining stock has finally sold out – at that point the figures will match.
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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Those are some awful numbers for Xbox. Sold less than half that of the seven year old Switch. Ouch!
Well Xbox is more for service now so not really surprised
Switch somehow managed to stay close behind PS5. But PS5 and Xbox Series being down compared to their predecessor is a bit surprising. Looks like many people took advantage of the Black Friday sales.
Uncle Sam blew up the nordstream pipeline so europeans need their entire paycheck for energy..
foreign affairs.
Could we make a general assumption that the PS5, Switch and Xbox Series sold more in the Americas Dec 2023 than in Europe Dec 2023?
If so, what would you predict?
For a 7 year old console it sure is putting up a wonderous fight for the holidays.
PS5 beat the Switch in December by 213k units.
PS5 down 640k compared to the same month of PS4. That's huge. How did that happen? Great numbers still, but that's a big gap.
Switch is just insane. Congrats to Nintendo, they've knocked the ball out of the park with the Switch. No other way to put it.
Series sales for Europe continue their down trend. I guess it's over for the Series in Europe, at least outside the UK.
PS5 had supply issues for its first two years that hit Europe pretty hard. It stabilized earlier in the USA.
This year all of Sony's promotions were in November pretty much. Once the old model sold out they didn't really have any promotions for the slim. So that's why they went from outselling the PS4 by 460k in November to being 640k down on it in December.
Relative to the main competition though it did better than the ps4 .
Nice damage control.
I didn't downvote you. But couldn't get the context of your comment, either
You wanna give us some?
PS and Xbox seem close to the Europe december article but why is Switch so much lower? Are the estimates for UK and germany really that terrible?
The Switch was reported as -7% YoY in the EU regions covered by the gameindustry.biz article, but -17% YoY in the UK. So the drop should be bigger than 7%. However a 20% drop, higher than both the EU Mainland and the UK drop is pretty strange. That would need quite a bit more than a 20% drop in the countries not covered to make up that difference.
It's worth pointing out that the YoY comparisons for that 7% drop were for a four-week period while the month's sales as a whole is a five-week period. So that could account for some change. But still Switch seems like it should be a little bit higher to me.
