When Microsoft announced "more than one million consoles sold through worldwide in less than 24 hours" after the Xbox One's Friday launch, we were tempted to just copy and paste our article on the PS4's own million-unit first day, replacing specific nouns and details where appropriate. We eventually thought better of that bit of self-plagiarism, but our analysis of Microsoft's big first day is basically unchanged from our take on Sony's launch: don't read too much into it.
Sure, Microsoft having "the biggest launch in Xbox history" is better for the company than not having the biggest launch in Xbox history. But "Xbox history" only covers two console launches, the last of which was a full eight years ago, when the overall market for game consoles in general was smaller. Having the strongest Xbox launch ever is a pretty low bar to clear.
Remember, too, that both the original Xbox and the Xbox 360 had staggered launches, hitting North American stores weeks or months before Japan and Europe. Friday's Xbox One launch was spread out across 13 countries: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Spain, the UK, the US, and New Zealand. That makes comparing Microsoft's "day-one" numbers across generations a little tricky; this time around, for instance, data from Chart-Track suggests that the UK was responsible for about 150,000 of the Xbox One sales over the launch weekend.
Not that it really matters in the long run. Almost every console sees a launch window sellout after months of marketing hype and years of pent-up demand for new hardware. Some of those systems go on to dominate the market for years afterward, while others quickly fade to obscurity or also-ran status in the months following the post-launch honeymoon. A single day of sales data for either console, no matter how impressive in raw numbers, isn't enough to predict which system will be selling better in even a few months' time.
:rofl4:
tlou ist wohl das wunderbarste gesamtpaket der gen imo.
fann nehm ich selbstverständlich alles zurück.
