PS4 Beats PS2 Sales

Back in early 2000, Sony brought us the PlayStation 2, the console that set the world alight; bringing amazing quality to the masses. Back then, the PS2 was almost unrivalled, the Sega Dreamcast was the only real competition as the Nintendo GameCube and Microsoft Xbox were not released until over 18 months later; this allowed the PS2 to sell over 155 million units in total.

Today, it was announced that the PlayStation 4 has knocked its older brother off the top spot for like-for-like sales. In just 18 months, the PS4 has sold over 2 million units in the UK alone, outpacing the PS2. This now means that roughly 3% of the UK population owns a PS4, or about 7.5% of UK homes.

Worldwide, Sony have announced a total sales figure of 22.3 million units since launch, smashing its closest rival Microsoft with an estimated 14 million units and doubling the Nintendo Wii U of just 9.9 million units.

It isn’t overly surprising that the PS4 is the most popular console in the UK, for years Sony has held a strong market lead over its console rivals in Europe as well as Japan. In the US, Sony has had a tougher time where the Xbox 360 was dominating the previous generation console sales, but due to early slip-ups in the early stages of the Xbox One, Sony has maintained a lead there too.

I personally don’t own a console, I just don’t find the free time to justify the cost. Are you one of the 3% of UK residents that own a PS4 or do you own a Xbox One? What about in other countries, do you and your friends all own the same console? Let us know in the comments.

Thank you to ArsTechnica for providing this information.