Xbox One sales surpass 2m worldwide announces Microsoft

Microsoft's console has sold at a slower rate than Sony's PS4, but is available in less than half the number of countries

A man dressed as a zombie plays video games on an Xbox One console during a midnight launch event in New York. (REUTERS/Lucas Jackson )

Microsoft has updated their sales figures for the Xbox One, revealing that the new console has sold more than 2 million units since its launch on 22 November.

This brings the console closer in line to the PlayStation 4. On 3 December Sony announced that their console had sold more than 2.1 million units since its initial launch on 15 November in North America.

This means that Sony have been selling at a faster rate: averaging 123,500 units a day as compared to Microsoft’s average of 111,111 units sold daily. However, the Xbox One is only on sale in 13 markets, as compared with the PS4’s availability in 32.

Both manufacturers have stressed that they are selling practically every unit that they supply to retailers.

“Demand for next generation gaming continues to be very strong,” said John Love, director of video games at Amazon. “At peak demand, customers were ordering the Xbox One console at over 1000 units per minute on Amazon.com.”

Although early performance is by no means an indicator of long term success (the PS3 sold terribly after its launch before gradually overtaking the Xbox 360 in overall sales) the sales figures for both consoles are positive, especially giving the many predictions regarding the 'end' of the home console industry.

In terms of pure sales it seems that many are already calling the battle in Sony's favour, with analysts DFC Intelligence declaring the PS4 the "leading system of this generation". The console's two-week sales have been greater than both the Wii (1.6 million in Japan and North America in 2006) and the PS2 (1.4 million Japan in 2000).

"The PlayStation 2 and Wii went on to be the best selling console systems ever. DFC Intelligence does not believe that the PlayStation 4 will surpass those systems but reiterates its forecast that the PS4 will be the number one system of this generation," said the firm.