80% of single-player game sales are on PS5 over Xbox reveals combined data

The vast majority of single-player game sales come from PlayStation 5 players, even as Microsoft tries to deny it.

The PlayStation 5 is vastly more popular than the Xbox Series X/S in terms of sales, with Sony’s console selling 93 million units versus the estimated 35 million for Microsoft’s machine.

The failure of the Xbox Series X/S is emphasised further when you compare its sales with the Nintendo Switch 2. Nintendo’s latest console has sold 19.86 million within its first 10 months. The Xbox Series X/S, meanwhile, has been on sale for almost six years. 

Naturally, this means games sell more copies on PlayStation 5 than Xbox Series X/S, but new data has revealed how large the difference is. 

According to The Game Business co-founder Christopher Dring, who has ‘averaged’ data from GSD, Ampere, and other data suppliers, a new triple-A single-player game on console ‘tends to do about 75%-80%’ of its global launch sales on PlayStation over Xbox. 

‘That number is often lower when it comes to online multiplayer games,’ he added on X, although he doesn’t provide any specific figures. 

It’s unclear whether these figures encompass both digital and physical sales, but it’s a believable statistic when you take into account the console sales split. Additionally, Xbox Game Pass has incentivised Xbox players to buy a subscription over individual games, so that’s only reduced game sales on the system even more. 

A new AAA single-player game on console tends to do about 75% – 80% of its sales (at launch) on PlayStation vs Xbox. That number is often lower when it comes to online multiplayer games.

The single-player distinction suggests Sony has successfully made the PlayStation 5 the go-to place for solo players, through first party titles like God Of War Ragnarök, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Astro Bot, and Ghost Of Yōtei. 

We’ve recently seen this same gulf when it comes to GTA 6 pre-orders. Based on IGN affiliate link data, there’s a 8-to-1 ratio split between sales for the PlayStation 5 version and the Xbox Series X/S version. 

Microsoft has refuted these figures in a statement to Windows Central. ‘This doesn’t represent pre-order data,’ an Xbox spokesperson said. ‘We’ve had record orders. People should wait for real data and not clicks on affiliate links.’

While affiliate links might not reflect the full picture, it’s a silly response because Xbox doesn’t provide any concrete proof of these ‘record orders’, even though it could choose to share them if it wanted. Additionally, it’s difficult to imagine the actual ratio, based on console sales numbers alone, is too far off this estimated split. 

We may get a better idea of the sales divide when GTA 6 launches worldwide across PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on November 19, 2026 but no company is likely to reveal exact sales data – beyond the overall sales total of the game.

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