The hype for the next-gen consoles cannot be denied, as both the PS5 and Xbox Series are absolutely sold out everywhere. Sony have released their official figures, shipping 4.5 million consoles as of December 2020, so all eyes were on Microsoft to see how their latest effort performed. According to industry analyst Daniel Ahmad, they’re actually pretty close and performing very well.

In a reply to Ryan McCaffrey from IGN asking for Xbox Series numbers, Ahmad replied a vague reply, saying “Take a bit over 1 million off the PS5 number and you won’t be far off.” This roughly points to about 3.5 million, which is a very solid number on its own, and could have been higher had it not been for the limited production numbers.

Further down the thread, Ahmad replies to another inquiry, asking for the factors that led to this gap despite both selling out, and replied simply by saying “Microsoft started manufacturing later than Sony” as they were indeed waiting for certain components.

Xbox had a rocky generation prior to this one, but with a leadership change that saw Phil Spencer take the helm, the future has never looked brighter for team green. With the recent acquisition of Bethesda and even its Game Pass subscribers reaching a whopping 18 million, the Series X and S have millions of eager homes waiting for them, the only question is when will they become readily and widely available for the public to actually purchase.