Xbox Series X/S has outsold PS5 in Japan for only the fourth time

Xbox Series X/S has outsold PS5 in Japan for only the fourth time on a weekly basis since both consoles launched in November 2020.

According to Famitsu‘s weekly charts, 2,903 Xbox Series X and 398 Series S consoles were sold in Japan last week, a total of 3,301.

By comparison, 2,717 PS5 consoles and 216 PS5 Digital Edition consoles were sold, a total of 2,933.

There may be extenuating circumstances surrounding these numbers, as on the previous three occasions Microsoft‘s console outsold Sony‘s, the PS5 had stock issues in Japan.

In one week-long period in May 2022, Xbox sold 6,225 units whereas the PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition sold a combined 2,693 units.

This was replicated again one week in June 2022 (6,695 Xbox vs 3,035 PlayStation) and again in September 2022 (14,077 Xbox vs 11,180 PlayStation).

It appeared that Xbox’s infrequent wins were set to come to an end when, in December last year, PlayStation boss Jim Ryan said PS5 stock shortages in Asia had finally been resolved.

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Indeed, since then, PS5 has regularly sold far more units than Xbox Series X/S in Japan.

However, in this new instance, PS5 units are seemingly once again thin on the ground in Japan, or perhaps people are holding off buying one as PlayStation prepares to release its new PS5 ‘Slim’ model.

The new model will replace the launch one, meaning no new stock is expected to come into the country until the ‘Slim’ model ships.

All of the above has no bearing on the sales of the Nintendo Switch, however, which continue to dominate in Japan by a country mile.

This week, 66,161 Switch units were sold in Japan, taking the console’s lifetime sales in the country to over 31 million.