Microsoft Matches PS4 Sales With 1 Million Xbox Ones In 24 Hours, But Takes 11 More Countries To Do It

Microsoft sent out some Xbox One PR today to various outlets, you may have seen the numbers. Over 1 million Xbox One (our review) consoles sold within 24 hours! That’s pretty good, and far better than the Xbox 360 sold on its opening day, marking a new record for Microsoft.

But let’s make sure to put the numbers in perspective. Sony’s PlayStation 4 also sold over 1 million units in 24 hours when it launched around a week ago. So far, the two console giants are neck and neck. However, there’s just one little detail Microsoft fails to mention in its PR: The Xbox One launched in a total of 13 countries, 11 more than the PlayStation 4.

Sony’s console launched only in the US and Canada, and will roll out to more regions later on. The Xbox One, by comparison, launched in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Spain, the U.K., U.S., and New Zealand. That’s a lot more territory to only match Sony’s numbers blow for blow so far. The PS4 won’t hit other major territories like the U.K. and Europe until November 29th.

Unfortunately, we can’t draw too many conclusions from the numbers because Microsoft makes sure to mention the following: “Xbox One is now sold out at most retailers. We are working to replenish stock as fast as possible to meet the unprecedented demand from our customers.”

So, with stock unavailable at ‘most’ retailers, the lack of additional sales could simply be a result of there being no cookies in the jar. People could want Xbox Ones but simply not be able to get them. Sony did not make a mention of selling out of its stock in its release. Also notable: The Xbox One retails for $100 more than the PS4 due to the inclusion of the Kinect motion sensor, so this amounts to more money for Microsoft at this point.

I’m sure we can count on some fantastic sounding momentum numbers from both Sony and Microsoft in the days to come. But for now, they both appear to have at least some raw parity of sales numbers.

Meanwhile, Nintendo has sold just over 3.9M Wii U units so far this year.