Legendary gaming publication Famitsu has shared the sales numbers of consoles for its home territory of Japan for the week of 5/9 to 5/15, revealing the surprising fact that Microsoft’s weaker next-gen console managed to outsell Sony’s modern juggernaut. The list of estimated hardware sales for that period pegs the Xbox Series S at 6,120 units sold, while the PlayStation 5 only moved 2,240 units. This is reportedly the first time in eight years that Xbox has outsold PlayStation in Japan, but PlayStation fans have been quick to suggest that Microsoft only managed the feat due to the PS5’s limited availability. The Xbox Series S seems to be readily available at its MSRP of $299.
Not since the launch of the Xbox One has Xbox outsold PlayStation in Japan.
— Game Data Library (@GameDataLibrary) May 19, 2022
It's happened less than 10 times overall. https://t.co/YWNh5UiiLw pic.twitter.com/c882RRJ03C
This milestone is notable due to the Xbox family’s famously soft sales figures across the generations in Japan.
According to a recent report, as of February, only 2.3 million Xbox consoles had been sold in Japan across all generations since the original console came to the country 20 years ago.
The vast majority of these were Xbox 360 sales, of which there were 1,616,128.
As pointed out by @GameDataLibrary, Xbox hasn’t outsold PlayStation since the launch of the Xbox One in 2014. Since the inception of the Xbox brand, it has outsold PlayStation fewer than ten times.