PlayStation 5 reportedly outsold Xbox Series X/S by 10-to-1 in India in 2021

It seems residents of India greatly prefer the PlayStation 5 over the Xbox Series X and S. According to a new report, Sony’s latest console outsold Microsoft’s by a whopping 10 times.

The report comes from Rishi Alwani of 0415 Games, a Substack newsletter focus on PC and console gaming in India. The PS5 was the overall best-selling console there, and Alwani estimates a total of 60,000 units sold. Mathematically, that would mean a very low sales figure of just 6,000 consoles for the Xbox Series X and S combined. Alwani’s sources also claim that 90% of the PS5s sold included a disc drive, rather than the all-digital version of the console.

Those 60,000 sales may not sound like much, especially when compared to the 10 million PS5s sold as of July 2021 — it’s the fastest-selling PlayStation console, after all. However, India’s preference for mobile and PC gaming explains the disparity. It’s the fastest-growing video game market in Asia, with PC and mobile game revenue projected to hit nearly $1.5 billion by 2025. This is due to factors like low-cost 4G service, affordable smartphones, and the large number of free-to-play games available in India. Even with a strong preference for non-console gaming, the country still reportedly had a 10-to-1 difference in sales between PS5s and Xboxes, which is a win for Sony.