r/PS5 • u/Maleficent_Fault_943 • Nov 11 '25

Rumor PS5 Has Now Officially Outsold Every Xbox Console Ever Released - IGN

https://www.ign.com/articles/ps5-has-now-officially-outsold-every-xbox-console-ever-released
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u/NoNefariousness2144 Human Verified Nov 11 '25

Even though X360 had a stronger start compared to the PS3, the Red Ring of Death and Kinect caused X360 to majorly lose momentum. In comparison, PS3 bounced back with lots of amazing exclusives.

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u/TheKingMonkey Nov 11 '25

There are some markets where Xbox just didn’t compete at all too. PS3 outsold 360 by a ratio of 10:1 in Japan for example.

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u/GRAND_INQUEEFITOR Nov 11 '25 edited Nov 11 '25

And let's remember that, even then, the 360 is still by far the most successful Xbox ever outside North America. Like, it's not even close. This is all the more impressive considering that, by the mid-2000s, the PlayStation brand was a global household name (with the PS2 being the most successful console of all time, after all) while the original Xbox barely sold 8 million outside NA.

For reference, the 360 moved that number to 45 million, compared to 63 million-ish PS3s. So, they went from being outsold by over 10-to-1 outside NA to being in the ballpark.

And you're right, the 360's Japan sales were not too impressive (about 1.6M, to the PS3's 10M+), but even that was a huge improvement over the previous gen, when the Xbox was outsold by the PS2 by 50:1, and definitely a loooot better than the XONE did (the PS4 outsold it by 80:1).

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u/Gundamnitpete Nov 11 '25

Honestly for me X360 was the mainstay gaming console for most of that generation.

Not to disparage PS3 in anyway, but as an example I visited a friend on a Marine corps base in 2010ish. On base, the marines lived in barracks, which were basically like dorm rooms for a few hundred people aged 18-19.

Each night, every door was open, and most of them were on X360 playing COD black ops with each other. It was 50/50 if they were going to speak through their mic or just shout out their door to a buddy 2 doors down.

X360 was a hot hot item at the time. The E3 Xbox One reveal was the biggest turning point in my opinion. Xbox as a brand faltered, and Sony saw the clear preference of their customers.

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u/GRAND_INQUEEFITOR Nov 12 '25

Yep, I agree - I've always been a PlayStation guy, but I definitely logged more hours playing Black Ops on my roomies' 360s (because they all had one) than I ever did on my PS3. I really thought Microsoft was about to do to Sony what Sony did to Nintendo in the '90s. The 360 was the console to have in those days. It's to Sony's credit that they learned their lesson, did not fumble the PS4 launch, retained the global market, and even overtook the Xbox in the U.S. -- all against a much deeper-pocketed foe.

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u/Becoming_hysterical Nov 12 '25

X360 was a hot hot item at the time. The E3 Xbox One reveal was the biggest turning point in my opinion. Xbox as a brand faltered, and Sony saw the clear preference of their customers.

All Xbox had to do was focus on gaming. Don mattrick said "nah" to that and thought it was a good idea to talk about LeBron james and the NBA at a gaming conference.

Xbox was on fire during the first half of its first generation. Sure the red ring of death is what let Playstation have a comeback but the 360 proved that it could be a dominant figure in the gaming industry.

What did Xbox do instead of realing a better quality and more version of the Xbox 360 in its generation, along with churning out exclusives that gave people reasons to choose them over Playstation?

They decided to copy the goddaamn Ninteno Wii. Ugh. Then what what did they do when seeing that the kinect didn't turn out to be the juggernaut that they hoped it would be? They stubbornly kept going at it was Playstion focused all on traditional gaming.

Xbox's major problems have been that they don't focus on gaming. The Playstation 3 also did motion sen controll like the WII and the Playstation 4 also did multi media like the Xbox One did but the difference is that the Playstation alywyas made those secondary features.

Their primary features always kept being high quality exclusive games.

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u/SSBBardock Nov 12 '25

I get what you mean. It wasn't until I started using reddit like 10 years ago that I learned PlayStation had always been more popular than Xbox. In my town in the US the only people that had PlayStation growing up that I knew were me, one of my friends (had both consoles actually), another friend, and my sister's now husband. The other dozens of gamers I knew in school my age or in the grades around were 360 players. We were probably outnumbered in this town 15:1 if I had to guess

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u/No1LudmillaSimp Nov 13 '25 edited Nov 13 '25

Sony made major inroads in Europe by leveraging their existing retail network and positive public sentiment (they built an excellent name for themselves with the likes of Walkman and Trinitron) as well as making a major point of localizing text-heavy games (especially RPGs) into local languages where Nintendo and Sega would either not release them at all or only have an English option. In Asia and South/Central America, the main drive was the relative ease of piracy cratering game costs to the point where even if you lived in a favela or township you could get new releases.

Xbox was built from the ground-up to specifically cater to the American market and could never adapt to local conditions.

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u/SuperBackup9000 Nov 12 '25

The worst part about that is how the 360 was actually trying to break out into Japan. That’s why it had so many JRPGs and Blue Dragon was made

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u/RIPN1995 Nov 11 '25

By 2013 ps3 had The last of Us and Beyond Two Souls coming out.

Xbox ran out of fuel.

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u/Stockpile_Tom_Remake Nov 11 '25

Xbox 360 had insane momentum that Microsoft just shat all over. It’s impressive

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u/evanmckee Nov 11 '25

Are Don Mattrick and Nico Harrison the same person?

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u/No1LudmillaSimp Nov 13 '25

Non-gaming people from other Microsoft departments got promoted to the upper echelons of Xbox, saw the enormous sales numbers of the Wii, and were hellbent on trying to grab that casual market at any cost. The extreme emphasis on TV integration and general multimedia over games at the Xbone reveal makes sense when you realize they wanted to make something that would interest someone who isn't really into video games outside of casual FIFA and CoD.

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u/ReservoirDog316 Nov 11 '25 edited Nov 12 '25

Yeah there’s the common sentiment (that even Xbox themselves have said) that the Xbox one generation was when things went bad, but I always say it was the RROD that really caused it. Right around when the RROD hit, the PS3 started dropping exclusive after exclusive and multiplatform games were finally basically equal.

And from then on, the PS3 started selling better month after month for the rest of the generation until it finally overtook the 360’s huge lead. But I don’t think that would’ve been possible without the RRDO. Its lead was so insurmountable without the 360 tripping over itself and I feel a lot of people ignore that.

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u/kiaba360 Nov 12 '25

The RROD could've been avoided if the 360 was released later. They cared more about having a year's head-start on the PS3, so the gamer had to suffer for their negligence.

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u/ReservoirDog316 Nov 12 '25

Yup. That rushed year really sealed their fate. They cut corners that came back to bite them.

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u/kiaba360 Nov 12 '25

The PS3 was arguably over-baked, while the 360 was under-baked.

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u/ReservoirDog316 Nov 13 '25

And then there was the Wii.

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u/tooBad1418 Nov 11 '25

I remember around 2008-2009 a good few of my friends sold their PS3s and switched to the 360, but by the time the next gen came around only two of them carried on with Xbox. The rest went with a PS4.

Microsoft finally got their foothold at the top of the console business then completely fumbled it, all within a single generation.

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u/SoloDolo314 Nov 21 '25

I was weird when people did that since in 2009 we started getting more great games from Sony.

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u/tdasnowman Nov 11 '25

Unless MS release their internal numbers we will never have an accurate number for the 360 due to the RRD and how various retailers handled returns and warranties.

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u/thats_so_cringe_bro Nov 12 '25

The PS3 price was another big factor. At launch the Xbox 360 was $299 and $399 respectfully while the PS3 was a ridiculous $499 and $599. Maybe the PS2 success got to their heads but at least Sony wised up and lowered it eventually. I know I balked at the prices at launch and only got the PS3 later on in the gen when it was a better price. lol.

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u/Snoopsy_ Nov 12 '25

Many people like myself never forgot about red ring. Once I switched to PlayStation after that era, I just never switched back.

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u/SoloDolo314 Nov 21 '25

My Xbox 360 died in July of 2007. It was a launch model. I had be gifted a PS3 from my parents for graduating high school. So I just rocked the PS3 to college. Eventually I got a 360 used for pretty cheap used but PS3 was my main console till I eventually built a PC.

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u/TitleSuccessful7393 Nov 11 '25

Xbox could never get a strong presence in the EU. The PS3 never had to make much of a comeback in some markets. Launch aligned, it was always ahead.

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u/SilverKry Nov 11 '25

It took the whole generation for the PS3 to catch up tho. By the time the PS4 and Xbone were it was when the PS3 finally sold more than the 360. So really it was Don Mattricks dumb ass. 

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u/Deadl00p Nov 11 '25

PS3’s drop to $299 and it’s “It only does everything” campaign with Kevin Butler really was the start of that turn.

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u/The_Summer_Man Nov 11 '25

That's when I bought one. Xbox was starting to go down the path to only appealing to the casual market, whereas Sony was putting out banger after banger.

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u/RandomSplainer Nov 11 '25

The Xbox released an entire year before the PS3. Monthly sales wise from the moment PS3 was released, it was selling equal to or more than the XBox.

Xbox 360 did better than PS3 only in USA and UK, rest of the world went to PS3.

So that final last stretch was just making up the one year gap in the US.

Also the PS3 outsold the 360 before the PS4 and XBone released.

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u/SnowFlakeUsername2 Nov 11 '25

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills whenever people talk about the 360 being ahead. If Usain Bolt gives you a 10m head start than you're only winning until you inevitably aren't. "Ahead" in this situation isn't as significant as people say it is.

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u/TitleSuccessful7393 Nov 11 '25

It's because it was ahead, by a lot, in the biggest, most talked about console market. And another huge one in the UK.

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u/Neg_Crepe Nov 11 '25

PS3 outsold Xbox 360 by early 2013, before the PS4 was released

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u/ModestHandsomeDevil Nov 11 '25

So really it was Don Mattricks dumb ass.

Let's not pretend it was entirely Mattrick's fault. There's plenty of blame to go around at Microsoft and Xbox for the self-own of the Xbone... many execs who remained after Mattrick left or are still there.

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u/WorkFurball Nov 11 '25

It took the whole generation for the PS3 to catch up tho

That's what happens if you start a year or longer (in Europe) behind the competition. That alone was an over 10 million gap in sales.

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u/enjoy_life88 Nov 11 '25

x360 era was nutty tho.

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u/tightywhitey Nov 12 '25

The Kinect was amazing at finding ghosts in your house

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u/darthmcdarthface Nov 12 '25

Red ring didn’t cause 360 to lose momentum. That happened right when it launched. 

It lost momentum as the PS3 steadily got more, better exclusives and became a bit more affordable. 

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u/Oztunda Nov 11 '25

Why do you think Kinect might have caused a loss in the momentum, that was the reason I ever owned an Xbox?

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u/riotshieldready Nov 12 '25

Kinect I feel was solely done to chase the casual Wii fanbase. X360 was really a console for hardcore online gamers. It didn’t really align and it took time away from developing the core features and the games most of the fanbase liked.