PS5 Best-Seller, XS Sales Up Compared to April - Americas Hardware Estimates for May 2024 - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 08 July 2024 / 6,887 Views
The PlayStation 5 was the best-selling console in the Americas (USA, Canada, & Latin America) with 289,885 units sold for May 2024, according to VGChartz estimates. The PlayStation 5 has now sold an estimated 24.31 million units lifetime in the Americas.
The Nintendo Switch was the second best-selling console with an estimated 136,494 units sold to bring lifetime sales to 53.43 million units. The Xbox Series X|S came in third place with 131,095 units sold to bring its lifetime sales to 17.36 million units. The PlayStation 4 sold an estimated 918 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 6,000 units, while the Xbox Series X|S compared to the same month for the Xbox One are down by nearly 36,000 units. PS4 sold 284,105 units for the month of May 2017 and Xbox One sales were at 166,783 units.
PlayStation 5 sales compared to the same month a year ago are down by 33,536 (-10.4%). Xbox Series X|S sales are down by 45,809 units (-25.9%) and Nintendo Switch sales are down by 398,515 units (-85.8%). The PlayStation 4 is down by 5,550 units (-85.8%) year-over-year.
Looking at sales month-on-month, PlayStation 5 sales are down by over 16,000 units, Xbox Series X|S sales are up by over 9,000 units, and Nintendo Switch sales are down by over 12,000 units.
2024 year-to-date, the PlayStation 5 has sold an estimated 2.26 million units, the Nintendo Switch has sold 1.19 million units, and the Xbox Series X|S has sold 1.02 million units.
Monthly Sales:
Americas hardware estimates for May 2024 (Followed by lifetime sales):
- PlayStation 5 - 289,885 (24,306,640)
- Switch - 136,494 (53,433,501)
- Xbox Series X|S - 131,095 (17,357,526)
- PlayStation 4 - 918 (41,540,656)
USA hardware estimates for May 2024:
- PlayStation 5 - 244,125
- Switch - 115,014
- Xbox Series X|S - 110,063
- PlayStation 4 - 785
Weekly Sales:
May 11, 2024 hardware estimates:
Americas:
- PlayStation 5 - 72,085
- Switch - 33,188
- Xbox Series X|S - 30,568
- PlayStation 4 - 233
USA:
- PlayStation 5 - 60,723
- Switch - 27,946
- Xbox Series X|S - 25,612
- PlayStation 4 - 199
May 18, 2024 hardware estimates:
Americas:
- PlayStation 5 - 65,122
- Switch - 33,711
- Xbox Series X|S - 31,852
- PlayStation 4 - 231
USA:
- PlayStation 5 - 54,781
- Switch - 28,385
- Xbox Series X|S - 26,786
- PlayStation 4 - 197
May 25, 2024 hardware estimates:
Americas:
- PlayStation 5 - 63,825
- Xbox Series X|S - 34,856
- Switch - 34,165
- PlayStation 4 - 228
USA:
- PlayStation 5 - 53,789
- Xbox Series X|S - 29,241
- Switch - 28,796
- PlayStation 4 - 195
June 1, 2024 hardware estimates:
Americas:
- PlayStation 5 - 88,853
- Switch - 35,430
- Xbox Series X|S - 33,819
- PlayStation 4 - 226
USA:
- PlayStation 5 - 67,651
- Switch - 27,983
- Xbox Series X|S - 25,517
- PlayStation 4 - 194
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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Nintendo shipped 141,32 M Switch units according to their last quarter reunion. If the Switch sells around the same amount as it sold in May (~600k) in June, the Switch would be at 141 M by the end of 2024's first fiscal year quarter, which is still in line with Nintendo's shippment
That’s not really how shipments work. The gap between shipped and sold through in a quarter tends to be consistent over time and not an indicator of how many units they plan to sell in the next quarter. Like they’re not shipping 10m Switches during the July-September quarter at the Switch Peak time.
right so NSW shipped 1-1.5mil units for Q1F25? (which would mean console shipments are very likely not in-line with Nintendo’s sales projection.) Businesses don’t want to have more than 1-1.5mil consoles in surplus, else stores will start placing them on sale for the purpose of clearing up storage.
…okay so either Nintendo really missed the mark in the projections, or there’s a price cut incoming. There is no way NSW will top 10mil F’25 (ie current fiscal year) at this pace unless they’ve got something planned. They barely hit 500k WW in May.
Edit: I’m not even talking about the -85% YoY (it was known that the drop would be pretty massive going into the month). A pace of 500k/month would place the Switch with around 9M this fiscal year (4M from Nov+Dec…which is a generous estimate when you’re only selling 500k/month & a successor is right around the corner).
May was always going to be down a lot compared to last year due to Tears of the Kingdom and a limited edition OLED model. I do agree they have to do more than a simple bundle for the holidays to have any shot at reaching their forecast. New SKU? Price cut?
Based on this assumption then the Ps5 will barely be able to hit the target that Nintendo set for the switch, it would be impossible to beat Sony's, because the ps5 has been selling slightly more than the switch monthly since March, I believe this drop is in the market of games as a whole during this period of the year, all of them have weak sales, this does not accurately reflect what the second half of the year will be like or sales until the first 3 months of 2025. In addition, historically Nintendo has always sold more at the end of the year and comparing it to last year when we had the launch of Zelda, which is a mega system seller, is also unfair. In the worst case scenario, I see the Switch selling at least 12 million by the end of March.
Nintendo has revised their forecasts every year, no point on thinking too much about it right now.
I told ya ;) Just few days ago. To be honest it is even worse than my expectations that were around 150k for US for the month.
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