According to a report by IHS Markit, Sony’s PlayStation 4 nabbed a 51 percent share of the home console market in 2016, with its dominance only set to continue into 2017.
While the company notes that the console business fell by 2.5 percent last year, this year looks set to rebound thanks to the launch of the Nintendo Switch and continue growth from the digital console business. Not that the decline seemed to stop Sony, with the company’s flagship console contributing to $17.8 billion of the $19.7 billion in spending across console, software, and services.
By comparison, this puts the PS4 comfortable ahead of the Xbox One, with Microsoft’s current-generation system claiming 26 percent of the market during the same period last year. In fact, Sony’s machine ended 2016 with an impressive install base of 53 million compared to the Xbox One’s 27.6 million.
Looking ahead, IHS has forecast that Sony will smash a console market sales value of $20 billion if it continues to grow its digital console business, which currently stands at a worth of $4.4 billion excluding subscription services.
Sony announced earlier this year that it had sold 53.4 million PS4s worldwide since the console’s launch in November 2013. The format holder has a significant year under its belt, having launched three major new pieces of hardware: The PS4 Slim, PSVR, and the PS4 Pro, all of which have helped to increase the PS4’s dominance on the console market. PSVR in particular has gotten off to a healthy start, selling almost one million units to date.
PS4 update 4.50 was recently made available for download and comes equipped with a number of important new features, including support for external hard drives, a PS4 Pro Boost mode, and custom wallpapers among other additions.