Market research company SuperData has today estimated that Sony will formally announce PS4 console sales of 60 million once the Japanese corporation releases its fiscal earnings report tomorrow.
If true, it will mean that PS4 will have an almost 2-to-1 ratio to its immediate counterpart, the Xbox One – which is estimated to have an install base of around 33 million units – though Microsoft is notoriously cagey this generation when it comes to reporting console sales figures. (Typically you have to rely on publisher estimations and do some mental gymnastics to come up with a figure.)
Also, it means that PS4 is still nearly neck-and-neck with PS2 console sales at this point in its lifetime. No mean feat, that’s for sure.
Speaking to MCV, SuperData CEO Joost Van Dreunen surmised that these figures mean that Sony is in a far better position to acclimate to the transition from physical media to digital.
"With legacy publishers Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive, Activision Blizzard, and Ubisoft now moving into digital more aggressively, PlayStation stands to claim roughly two-thirds of the $7.8 billion digital console market," said Van Dreunen.
He added: "Over the past five years the share of revenue for full game downloads has increased five-fold in the United States, as publishers have started to exploit its benefits and relied more heavily on the sales of add-on content and bundles."
It’s no surprise, either, given the fact that cutting out the middleman (e.g. GameStop) will lead to more profits for all parties involved. Though, it’s little more difficult once you consider that console manufacturers still need store shelves – online or otherwise – to stock the latest hardware for consumers.
In any case, we’ll find out the full scoop tomorrow once Sony reports its earnings. As ever stay tuned for PSU for when it hits.