According to games industry analyst Piers Harding-Rolls, the PS5 is on track to outsell the Xbox Series X in 2022.
In a report from Ampere Analysis, the analyst spoke about how Sony and Microsoft had a tough time keeping their latest consoles in stock throughout their launch in 2020, as well as through 2021, due to strong demand from consumers and availability of components.
Harding-Rolls went on to state that in 2022, the availability of the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S are going to improve slowly over the year, saying, “Our expectation is that Sony will outsell Microsoft two-to-one.”
However, he predicts that the biggest selling console in the market is going to be Nintendo Switch at 21 million units, while the PS5 will sell at 18 million, and Xbox Series consoles will sell at 9 million. The analyst says that this is driven by demand by the new Nintendo Switch OLED which launched last year.
Additionally, Harding-Rolls said that game subscription services are set to grow by 27% across North America and Europe this year. The services that offer download distribution are “going to be the main part of the market”, and will “generate the most growth.” On the other hand, services that supply streaming-only are going to be worth 6% of that market.
In other news, Microsoft recently announced that it would be buying Activision Blizzard–pending regulatory approval–for nearly $70 billion. This brought up discussions on whether Call Of Duty titles will become exclusive to Xbox consoles and PC, but Phil Spencer has said they will still release on PlayStation, saying Microsoft intends to “honor all existing agreements upon acquisition of Activision Blizzard and our desire to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation.”
