PS5 Best-Seller as Sales Top 20M Lifetime - Europe Hardware Estimates for August 2024 - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 October 2024 / 9,212 Views
The PlayStation 5 was the best-selling console in Europe with 286,721 units sold for August 2024, according to VGChartz estimates. The PlayStation 5 has now sold an estimated 20.29 million units lifetime in Europe.
The Nintendo Switch sold an estimated 170,670 units to bring its lifetime sales to 36.58 million units. The Xbox Series X|S sold 74,059 units to bring their lifetime sales to 7.92 million units. The PlayStation 4 sold an estimated 1,038 units to bring its lifetime sales to 45.86 million units.
PS5 sales compared to the same month for the PS4 in 2017 are down by over 68,000 units, while the Xbox Series X|S compared to the same month for the Xbox One are down by over 31,000 units. PS4 sold 354,875 units for the month of August 2017 and Xbox One sales were at 105,281 units.
PlayStation 5 sales compared to the same month a year ago are down by 316,336 (-52.5%). Xbox Series X|S sales are down by 49,873 units (-40.2%) and Nintendo Switch sales are down by 72,447 units (-29.8%). The PlayStation 4 is down by 5,133 units (-83.2%) year-over-year.
Looking at sales month-on-month, PlayStation 5 sales are up by nearly 27,000 units, Xbox Series X|S sales are down by nearly 10,000 units, and Nintendo Switch sales are up by nearly 26,000 units.
2024 year-to-date, the PlayStation 5 has sold an estimated 2.82 million units, the Nintendo Switch has sold 1.38 million units, and the Xbox Series X|S has sold 0.57 million units.
Monthly Sales:
Europe hardware estimates for August 2024 (Followed by lifetime sales):
- PlayStation 5 - 286,721 (20,285,456)
- Switch - 170,670 (36,578,234)
- Xbox Series X|S - 74,059 (7,922,397)
- PlayStation 4 - 1,038 (45,857,246)
Weekly Sales:
Europe August 10, 2024 hardware estimates:
- PlayStation 5 - 64,052
- Switch - 39,286
- Xbox Series X|S - 19,173
- PlayStation 4 - 305
Europe August 17, 2024 hardware estimates:
- PlayStation 5 - 68,433
- Switch - 41,608
- Xbox Series X|S - 18,113
- PlayStation 4 - 278
Europe August 24, 2024 hardware estimates:
- PlayStation 5 - 81,079
- Switch - 44,753
- Xbox Series X|S - 17,321
- PlayStation 4 - 236
Europe August 31, 2024 hardware estimates:
- PlayStation 5 - 73,157
- Switch - 45,023
- Xbox Series X|S - 19,452
- PlayStation 4 - 219
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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i do not see the PS5 catching the PS4
Yep.
The door in Europe is closing.
There's still a chance for the PS5 to catch up to Europe's PS4 numbers. I believe so.
But it won't happen if there ain't gonna be a significant price cut before or at the point of the release of GTA6.
No price drop in PC hardware means Sony has no margin to cut PS5 price unfortunately
I'm a bit hesitant to believe PS5's hardware is still as costly like it was in 2020. SSD prices went down, the PS5's CPU shouldn't be anywhere above 150, ...
It's guesstimating.
But I tend to believe at this point in time Sony is selling PS5 Slim with a decent amount of profit at 549/449. Like most certainly the disc drive, too.
I gotta admit ... the PS5 is actually quite a milestone coming from PS4.
Looking at Sony's eco-system they've built around it (plates, colours, controllers, headphones, Edge, subscription prices, ... ), they've certainly started to monetize the brand aggressively.
I don't think it's a positive trend.
I disagree, I think the PS5 and XBSX are still very expensive to manufacture. Are MS price gauging by launching the new 2TB XBSX at 600$ or is it still just a very expensive console to make? So, because the PS5 and XBSX are comparable in performance the PS5 won't be that much cheaper either.
I very much doubt that Sony is gonna drop the prices of the PS5 anytime soon. In fact, I fear another price hike may be more likely than any price price drop at this point until late in it's life.
PS5 sales numbers are already an anomaly: Beginning with the PS2, every PlayStation console sold more in Europe than in North America, and apart of the Vita Europe was their main sales region. But the PS5 sells better in North America, leading Europe by 3 Millions and counting.
Going by that, if we were to align NA sales of both PS4 and PS5, then we would see that EU is trailing by over 6M compared to the PS4, and that gap is growing fast.
As such, I doubt it can even outsell the Switch's lifetime numbers in Europe. In fact, I don't think it will beat the PS3 by a large margin, either
YoY looks awful for Sony and Microsoft. The fact that NSW saw the smallest drop (and by a large margin) says a lot about the current state of affairs in gaming.
While I agree that in the fourth year the unchanged, official high price of the PS5 certainly doesn't contribute to better sales, it is, in contrary, important to keep in mind the PS5 has had the best year of hardware sales of any Playstation console in Playstation's history in their last fiscal year.
This produces a hefty downfall of yoy changes looking at percentage numbers, mind-boggling 50%.
Yet in absolute unit numbers, it means PS5 is still selling 316k units, still 6 times more than X|S and only 68k units behind aligned PS4 numbers. Which indeed is a decline, but with two very different aligned retail prices.
While the X|S "only" fell 40% yoy, but given last year's already abysmal unit numbers, it's much more worrying.
However, I certainly agree with everyone that the PS5's official retail price in its fourth year, which only has been seeing an increase rather than an usual price cut, is preventing people jumping in or jumping over.
August 2023 was also the first month of official sales for the PS5 ever in Europe (some may have started late July, can't remember)
"it is, in contrary, important to keep in mind the PS5 has had the best year of hardware sales of any Playstation console in Playstation's history in their last fiscal year."
NSW sold nearly 30mil in 2020, NDS sold over 30mil in both 2008 and 2009, Wii sold around 25mil in 2008...yet the biggest YoY drop for all these systems in the follow up year was no more than 25%. Not only that, no year prior to that of a successor would see more than 50% decline YoY for any of these systems! Not even the Wii despite hitting a steep cliff early on. PS5 is seeing 52% down YoY coming off a (in comparison to the above listed systems) measly 21mil units in 2023. PS5 should be selling far more systems than PS4 given how much more mainstream gaming has become as well how their only competitor is collapsing. Why was a 7yo NSW (2023) moving similar figures to a 4yo PS5 in a region which tends to favor Sony? That's horrible, no matter what way you choose to spin it.
The fact that Sony has fumbled PS5 so hard as to drop 50% YoY in any month post-March 2024 is a testament to the weakness they have shown this generation. They had strong market power last year, pulling a record number of systems sold, yet failed to maintain momentum.
"Which indeed is a decline, but with two very different aligned retail prices." We're looking at raw sales units, not the revenue, ratio of games-per-system, or anything else. If you wanna discuss these extraneous matters, I'm happy to do so...but not when we're discussing the raw sales units. (Though if you really wanna die on this hill: NSW is the only Nintendo handheld to go for $300 ever (other than 3DS at launch...which was immediately knocked down a few months later), though has stomped through all its competitors. What's Sony's excuse? )
"but not when we're discussing the raw sales units."
Why so combative?
Well, I didn't discuss retail price matter.
I pointed it out, no matter your offer discussing it. I just did.
There undeniably are various factors affecting hardware sales.
Some of them didn't even exist when Wii or 3DS were sold. Especially in Europe these days.
And another one is retail price. Especially in the fourth year of console generation.
I didn't want or need to spin anything.
(i am being combative b/c I get annoyed easily lol.) You're comment kinda reads as though you're trying to defend Sony's image.
"Yet in absolute unit numbers, it means PS5 is still selling 316k units, still 6 times more than X|S and only 68k units behind aligned PS4 numbers. Which indeed is a decline, but with two very different aligned retail prices." ("Well, I didn't discuss retail price matter." ???) You bring up a comparison to Xbox (which isn't much of a victory to come from PS5 as much a failure from Microsoft), "only 68k units behind" is a not-so-small 20% difference, and if you wanna start bring up retail cost, I can bring up how the popularity in videos games between the years 2013 - 2019 versus 2020 - (pres.) is incomparable.
"While the X|S "only" fell 40% yoy, but given last year's already abysmal unit numbers, it's much more worrying." Why are we talking about Xbox? My comment was focused on Sony. Xbox has been struggling for the past 24 months, there's no point in talking about this any longer. I'm just waiting to see what Microsoft has planned to fix this, if anything.
"This produces a hefty downfall of yoy changes looking at percentage numbers, mind-boggling 50%." I already explained in my prior comment how this point bad (for lack of better term).
I am a Playstationeer, yes.
But I am critical and vocal about Playstation's recent strategies.
I don't support many things they've recently done or the way the brand, in some examples, is seemingly shifting to.
But what I also do know is that you can't look at hardware unit numbers without context.
It's like looking at TV ratings, wether high nor low, without taking into account what program was running.
The PS5 didn't sell 40m units last year because there weren't six first party titles getting released and the PS5 wasn't priced at 299.
That's hyperbolic now, but that'd be context.
When College Football was released, hardware units did jump. When GTA6 will be released, hardware units will jump. That's context.
PS5's sales were at 21.3m units last fiscal year because it was the first year since 2020 the console was available without any shortages. That's context.
So, yeah, that's all I am saying.
Essay Pro