PS5 Best-Seller, Sales Drop YoY For All Consoles - Americas Hardware Estimates for March 2024 - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 May 2024 / 8,331 Views
The PlayStation 5 was the best-selling console in the Americas (USA, Canada, & Latin America) with 630,302 units sold for March 2024, according to VGChartz estimates. The PlayStation 5 has now sold an estimated 23.65 million units lifetime in the Americas.
The Nintendo Switch was the second best-selling console with an estimated 273,769 units sold to bring lifetime sales to 53.17 million units. The Xbox Series X|S came in third place with 236,462 units sold to bring its lifetime sales to 17.01 million units. The PlayStation 4 sold an estimated 1,306 units to bring its lifetime sales to 41.54 million units.
PS5 sales compared to the same month for the PS4 in 2017 are up by nearly 170,000 units, while the Xbox Series X|S compared to the same month for the Xbox One are down by nearly 83,000 units. PS4 sold 460,796 units for the month of March 2017 and Xbox One sales were at 319,399 units.
PlayStation 5 sales compared to the same month a year ago are down by 142,386 (-18.4%). Xbox Series X|S sales are down by 103,266 units (-30.4%) and Nintendo Switch sales are down by 122,709 units (-31.0%). The PlayStation 4 is down by 7,320 units (-84.9%) year-over-year.
Looking at sales month-on-month, PlayStation 5 sales are up by nearly 133,000 units, Xbox Series X|S sales are up over 9,000 units, and Nintendo Switch sales are up by over 27,000 units.
2024 year-to-date, the PlayStation 5 has sold an estimated 1.62 million units, the Nintendo Switch has sold 0.82 million units, and the Xbox Series X|S has sold 0.75 million units.
Monthly Sales:
Americas hardware estimates for March 2024 (Followed by lifetime sales):
- PlayStation 5 - 630,302 (23,648,805)
- Switch - 273,769 (53,136,867)
- Xbox Series X|S - 236,462 (17,008,425)
- PlayStation 4 - 1,306 (41,538,773)
USA hardware estimates for March 2024:
- PlayStation 5 - 535,121
- Switch - 230,112
- Xbox Series X|S - 200,089
- PlayStation 4 - 1,116
Weekly Sales:
March 9, 2024 hardware estimates:
Americas:
- PlayStation 5 - 116,204
- Switch - 59,296
- Xbox Series X|S - 49,255
- PlayStation 4 - 268
USA:
- PlayStation 5 - 98,521
- Switch - 49,802
- Xbox Series X|S - 41,769
- PlayStation 4 - 228
March 16, 2024 hardware estimates:
Americas:
- PlayStation 5 - 136,938
- Switch - 56,336
- Xbox Series X|S - 43,615
- PlayStation 4 - 265
USA:
- PlayStation 5 - 116,624
- Switch - 47,319
- Xbox Series X|S - 36,896
- PlayStation 4 - 226
March 23, 2024 hardware estimates:
Americas:
- PlayStation 5 - 131,476
- Switch - 53,764
- Xbox Series X|S - 49,081
- PlayStation 4 - 263
USA:
- PlayStation 5 - 111,739
- Switch - 45,191
- Xbox Series X|S - 41,630
- PlayStation 4 - 225
March 30, 2024 hardware estimates:
Americas:
- PlayStation 5 - 124,845
- Switch - 52,723
- Xbox Series X|S - 45,558
- PlayStation 4 - 258
USA:
- PlayStation 5 - 105,952
- Switch - 44,317
- Xbox Series X|S - 38,626
- PlayStation 4 - 221
April 6, 2024 hardware estimates:
Americas:
- PlayStation 5 - 120,839
- Switch - 51,650
- Xbox Series X|S - 48,953
- PlayStation 4 - 252
USA:
- PlayStation 5 - 102,285
- Switch - 43,483
- Xbox Series X|S - 41,168
- PlayStation 4 - 216
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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PS5 up 170k compared to the PS4 is actually impressive for a console still sitting at a $549 (Edit: $500) RRP with no first party titles announced until at least March 2025?
Looks like ~1.2m to ~1.3m PS5s were sold in March globally.
Quite a good number, but down ~600 to ~700k year-on-year.
With the first quarter of 2024 now being almost complete, numbers-wise, PS5 sits at ~3.8:1 ratio year-to-March compared to Xbox Series X|S.
It's very likely that this is going to stay this year's sellthrough ratio between the two. Which would be a premiere.
Edit:
It looks like Sony've sold ~21.2m PS5s in their fiscal year of 2023 (1st April '23 - 31st March '24).
Comparatively, although Microsoft uses a different fiscal year time frame, the've sold ~7m Xbox Series X|S in the same time.
That's a solid 3:1 ratio.
I don't think we have ever seen a 3:1 ratio over 12 months before between the two.
I would just note that PS5s sell for $500, not $550 in the US.
And the average purchase price for PS5 in March 2024 was lower than that based on Circana data because there is a Spider Man 2 bundle available for $450.
So the point about the cost isn’t quite accurate.
Thanks, I put in the edit. Got it confused with the €549 RRP over here in Europe.
You're right, the average price is lower than the RRP by Sony.
But that's actually the point I wanted to draw to.
Sony's official RRP (recommended retail price) still is at $500/€549. They still haven't officially announced any price drop yet (which would eventually cause the average price to go lower, too).
Very probably PS5 and Xbox Series will never get a permanent and significant price drop.
In my eastern-European country, second-hand PS5's (FAT and Slim) have prices starting at 350$, the same with Series X, and there are plenty; they sit there and nobody is rushing to buy them. I even got a Series S for 70$ with a controller.
Which counties made the biggest sales for each console outside the USA this month?
I would think Mexico or Brazil.
I'm from Brazil and I can say our market is already the second largest in America. We have 200 million inhabitants and a giant gamer population
That's really cool! Glad to hear that y'all are gaming hard!
200M is an impressive population. Keep growing strong!
Xbox sales are going to reach the oblivion point soon if this continues. 1M a quarter must already be close to the point of total collapse.
Sarah bonds tweet about the June 11'th Xbox showcase had a blue heart in it possibly signalling support for PS. They might be announcing more games for PS
It did not have the word Xbox redacted. If you look at the tweet "Xbox Games Showcase" is visible. The [Redacted] Direct is most likely referring to Call of Duty as it will be a "special deep-dive into the next installment of a beloved franchise" according to Xbox.
Not sure about the blue heart, it could be referring to Call of Duty which is remaining multiplatform. Possible some other games showcased will be coming to PlayStation (and Switch).
You're right Trunks. genuine mistake. Sorry for the misinformation I'll try not to do that again
Did AngryJoe tell you this too? Or some other Youtuber this time?
It's a fair observation considering the latest hw numbers of Xbox combined with the latest multiplat strategy of the last few months. It's highly possible that more games get announced there or soon.
He edited his comment, it originally said that "Xbox" was redacted because they don't want to mention the word Xbox anymore, in fairness he admitted his mistake but we'd have less embarrassing moments like this if people actually did their research before commenting, Lol.
(y’all downvote Ryuu96, but HP did edit his comment.) also, what do you mean “research before posting” when he literally just gave an opinion some video game company’s tweet lol?? It was a half-baked opinion, don’t get me wrong…but I don’t know what research he’d be doing.
Here's what Hardstuck said: "Sarah Bonds tweet about the upcoming June 11th Xbox event even had the word "Xbox" redacted out of it. It literally says "Redacted direct". They don't even want to mention the word Xbox anymore"
Here is Sarah's tweet where she mentions the word "Xbox" right at the start, specifically the "Xbox Showcase" - https://twitter.com/BondSarah_Bond/status/1785309325004878224 which is sub-tweeting another tweet which mentions the word "Xbox" two more times, "Xbox Games Showcase" and "#XboxShowcase" and very clearly as well in the image, in big bold letters, says "Xbox Games Showcase" next to "Redacted Direct"
Everyone who knows anything about Xbox knows that the "Direct" is focused on games, they're very obviously redacting the name of a game, nowhere is Xbox hidden as you can very clearly see for yourself.
So either he didn't research and what I'm saying by that is he didn't bother reading the tweet for himself and perhaps got the ragebait from a secondhand source or he's blind.
okay but research isn’t the right term. (also, I was literally agreeing with you in my initial comment.)
Ryuu is right I edited my comment. I made a mistake interpreting Sarah Bonds tweet and I don't know how cos it says Xbox right at the beginning. I just saw "redacted" and got the wrong idea
yeah I know, I literally was saying that Ryuu was right. I wrote it so explicitly I’m a little confused on the misunderstanding…?
It wasn't an opinion it was misinformation that I had to remove. just a mistake. not an opinion. The blue heart thing is still a valid opinion though
It's strange that the PS5 is doing so well in America and in Europe it's doing so badly. I'll wait for Sony's financial report to draw some conclusions.
It's only doing badly relative to the PS4 though. PS3 was very successful in Europe and it's still outselling that
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