TL;DR: It will still be a while before we get any solid numbers, but going by sales reports from physical retailers in the UK, it looks like the PlayStation 5 is in the lead in the consoles wars. The Xbox Series X|S is barely in contention in terms of total units sold, trailing behind the Nintendo Switch.
With manufacturers’ tendency to keep sales figures under wraps until quarterly reports, we sometimes have to go by industry analysts’ estimations to get an idea of how well a product is selling. We know that the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S are selling like hotcakes because few people, aside from scalpers, can get their hands on them.
Be that as it may, British market data firm GfK reports that in the four-week period ending November 28, retailers sold more than 900,000 video game consoles in the UK. Most were PlayStation 5 consoles, with the Nintendo Switch coming in second.
GamesIndustry notes that November 2020 was the eighth biggest month for home console units moved (not including handhelds) and the second biggest in terms of revenue, only trailing behind December 2013 when the retailers received large shipments of PS4 and Xbone consoles.
GfK also reports that UK consumers purchased 2.38 million games between October 25 and November 21. Nintendo came out on top in that race, with more than 833,000 Switch titles sold. Top sellers for the handheld hybrid were Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Mario Kart 8: Deluxe, Minecraft, and Super Mario 3 All-Stars. PlayStation 4 was second in terms of total games sold.
The top five best-selling disc games on any system were:
- Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
- Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
- FIFA 21
- Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
- Watch Dogs: Legion
While Call of Duty may have been the number one selling game across all platforms, in terms of PS5 launch titles, it came in a distant second to Spider-Man: Miles Morales.
Keep in mind these figures are based on sales by brick-and-mortar retailers based in the UK only. We likely won’t get any worldwide estimates until the first of the year or when Sony and Microsoft post their quarterlies.