Report: A Vast Number Of Multi-Platform Games Sell Better On The PC Than On Xbox One

DSOGaming writes: "Well, you gotta love Steamspy. This website has been counting the Steam sales of pretty much all games, and today we can bring you some interesting sales details about a variety of games. What’s also interesting is that thanks to VGChartz, we can compare the global sales (both retail and digital) of PC games with those of current-gen consoles. And the conclusion is that while PS4 tops every other platform, a lot of games sale better on the PC than on Microsoft’s current-gen console."

[Eonjay]

Unlike Japan and many other countries, the sales of games are hidden from public view. This is the only industry in the media like that. And its not right. We know what movies top the box office, what music tops the charts, exactly how many cars and homes are sold every month. We even know how many people are hired or lose their job.

But not video games... oh no.

[Mega24]

Because it's not important apparently, billion dollar industry is not important... sarcasm...

[bouzebbal]

i have no idea how many copies of 3rd party games are sold on PC but people buy games on their platform of choice.

[4Sh0w]

This headline is a major FAIL with cherry picked inaccurate data.

Source is vgchartz which has no idea what the retail and digital Xbox One sales are for games. Also by every widely accepted data report like NPD Xbox One game sales are typically higher than its pc counter part for major AAA retail games. http://venturebeat.com/2015... =Of course he didnt cite the latest real data where as you can see pc always trails behind X1.
I only see higher pc sales for certain pc centric games and of course party type/app games that your typical nongamer buys...lets compare all the high profile AAA games like COD, Assassins Creed, Madden, Titanfall, Battlefield, Tomb Raider, etc. This guy is cherry picking without even having valid data. Plus lets not forget X1 has had some decent-great exclusives to buy which obviously most X1 owners are going to favor over some of the lesser known IP's. When alot of exclusives launch X1 pwners arent going to buy every multiplatform game too.

[badboyz09]

Even after all the money they spend on Exclusive Marketing etc...

[Magicite]

Pretty much anything besides shooters sells poorly on xbox

[roland82]

I guess you keep up with everything that sells on the xbox to know that. Or your just talking out of your ass.

[gamer1138]

Wow, yeah. Comparing xbox's limited 10 million install base to literally a hundred million pc owners. Of course multiplayer will have sold better. Constantly attacking Xbox one is getting old now. AND before anyone says it, defending it is too! :P

[2pacalypsenow]

The fact that a PC version of a game is outselling a console version is newsworthy since it usually never happens

[Vegamyster]

No one actually knew since the majority of PC sales are digital which were never released like physical sales.

[Hassassin]

@vegamyster
One would think digital distribution would make it easier to count copies sold.

[Eonjay]

I think perspective is a huge thing. Is it really attacking the Xbox One if a game sales more on the PC. So simply performing better on PC = hating Xbox. If it is because of the PC userbase, why would Xbox or its fanbase feel attacked?

[MasterCornholio]

I don't consider it attacking the Xbox.

Its just news.

[Lukejrl]

Not really an attack but a display of where the market stands. To take it as an attack is foolish, it is like the car industry taking it as an attack that millions of downtown residents take mass transit. That is just a fact of life.

Now to use it as barometer and for Phil Spencer to try to improve xbox game sale, which he can. Still not an attack

[n4rc]

Perspective doesn't mean much when both sources pull data out of their asses..

The premise isn't an attack, but the article itself sure feels that way

[generic-user-name]

So explain how the PS4 outsells the "hundred million pc owners".

[nicksetzer1]

Why do you think it does? This is a list based on VGcharts and steamspy, both of which are totally inaccurate. Asd to that, that this site completely neglect to post PS4 numbers in contrast and you have a completely useless article made simply for hits.

http://steamspy.com/about
"Please note that Steam Spy extrapolates data from limited number of user profiles and thus isn't 100% correct."

[T900]

You do realise steam is not all of pc gaming. Hence if you add in the rest pc probably out sells the ps4 too.

[OpenGL]

Not all of those PC owners can play the latest games, nor do they buy the latest games. The PS4 has been out for less than 2 years so its user base is still very active as a whole.

[uth11]

any surprise that MS is cozying up to the PC gaming community more lately?

[Kingscorpion71]

They want PC gaming to save them. You are so right about Microsoft uth11.

[krouse93]

The same community of gamers that they abandoned with their draconian Games for Windows Live...

Maybe things have changed.

[uth11]

I doubt it..

MS always thinks that consumers will just adapt to whatever they dish out. Then when there's a backlash, they backpedal and do things right for awhile. But soon they go back to their old ways and overreach again.

So many examples of this in the company's history.

[n4rc]

What a comment.. Hey bud.. what platform do you suppose all PC gamers are using..

Oh yeah.. Windows.. Lol

[FallenAngel1984]

Microsoft created the Xbox brand in the first place to expand PC gaming

[BG11579]

Yes and No... They created Xbox brand because of Sony's Playstation.
The Playstation success and orientation for more adult public, made MS feared it could take a big chunk of business from them.
MS thought that the hardware that would control the living room would be more relevant in the near future. Strangely, they never thought that way with Sega or Nintendo.

[joeorc]

Not really, the Xbox platform is a trojan horse of having another go with making the "media center PC" to be more mainstream. It has always about . divided console gaming market viability in order to direct consumers of the game console market to use a windows OS powered media center PC instead of chooseing a game console over a media center PC for the living room entertainment box.

It was never about the console market, it was about making the Windows OS be the gate for all things software, including the entertainment software that is being played on a living room top set box under or connected to your TV.

[Dudebro90]

Install bases are astronomically different.

[Takwin]

Everyone who buys an Xbox wants to play games on it.

Not even close to everyone who buys a PC does so to play games.

"Install base" is a nebulous term when it comes to PCs.

I would like to see the actual number of PCs that could play the major games on even minimum settings - Witcher, Dragon Age, Civilization, Warcraft, Skyrim, COD, Battlefield, GTA, Assassin's Cred, Far Cry, etc.

[ginsunuva]

Even if you count gaming pc's by the type of GPU in them, you still have way more of them.

[GameBoyColor]

If we compare 10 million pc enthusiasts to 10 million xbox enthusiasts, I bet the results would still be the same.

[TheColbertinator]

Not trusting Vgchartz on this one but publishers do have an amicable relationship with Steam. Profit and strong sales would explain the continued dominance of Steam

[PistolsAtDawn]

So it's fair to count PC retail AND digital vs JUST X1 retail? Not to mention different release dates.... gaming "journalisim" is a joke

[Seafort]

It's about as fair as when people compare all console game sales vs PC like they did with GTA5 or CoD.

[ginsunuva]

PC retail is almost nil.
Xbone digital is almost nil.

Fair comparison.

[--bienio--]

Interesting to see Pc getting stronger and stronger..

[hells_supernova]

But pc gamers pirate all their games..../s

[Ginesis]

This holds no true weight as to how each game sold on each platform. For one the continuity of the analysis is highly erractic. In one paragraph this person is using retail games then in the next paragraph they're not? I hope this person doesn't have a future in Accounting or Finance because variables such as that will get them laughed at. Two, they say that the games that do out sell they don't have the numbers for? Here's some help, if you're going to write up a comparison piece make sure you have all your facts and statistics in order otherwise it make the piece look skewed and uninspired.

This is nothing more than a hypothetical write up with very little investigation put towards it. In short its a write up to start a flame war. This stuff has to stop popping up on this site but I highly doubt it will. Ridiculous.

[Rdeal]

Where do they get Xbox digital sales from? i thought ms never published them

[Moldiver]

"i thought ms never published them"

They dont. further exposing the holes in this article. He went through all this hassle to make a point and didnt have any creditable data to make his points with. Worse of all he uses the source that N4G posters unanimously hate...VGchartz.

"Father Murder X + 3h ago
I have noticed that the hit jobs against Xbox are stepping up the closer we get to E3. Not an accusation but rather an observation."

Yup. But MS will roll right over their haters come E3. like juggernaught on steroids. T minus 10 days.......

[wegetsignalx]

Baseless persecution complex and trolling. There are negative articles and trolls about all consoles on this site.

All 3 will have a good show at E3, spreading blind hate and FUD about "juggernaut on steroids" is ridiculous fanboyism.

[Perjoss]

But this is impossible, PC gaming is dead and has been for about 10 years.

[aLiEnViSiToR]

Actually...

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/...

:D

[ninjahunter]

Interesting, multiplat games usually have pretty weak sales on PC.

PC gamers usually flock around certain exlcusives, like league of legends which has over 30million unique players each month.

[someOnecalled]

unlike console gamers we just like good games. what you are describing is what happens to console exclusives they will buy and praise any game as it is godly if its exclusive. we just have more options and deeper gameplay. its not our fault that some genres dont exist on console unless their dumbed down, so of course they will sell a lot which is dumbed to point out. wouldnt that just make console look bad for not opening up to different things. most time console only gamers open up to things because its exclusive or because they are riding a wave pc been did. look at minecraft console gamers downplayed until it wasnt just on pc. look a rougelike games darksoul took what was trending on pc now its somehow new. look at amnesia and other horror games they been constantly bring good constant to players but soon as its ported its somehow new. if it wasnt for money i doubt consoles would have a lot of games. being that ignorant to things that people put they heart into is a slap in the face.

people love to talk bad about casuals but dont want to do research and whats going on in gaming. would that be considered as casual. be we know most people on here is bias unless its sony.

[ShottyGibs]

No.. Games always sell well on PC, it's just fanboy sites never count digital sales.
If you could take Steam, Uplay, Original, GOG and the other retailers the numbers would dwarf PS4 too

[Father__Merrin]

turdy news, I can't wait to see news on here no once console popularity accelerates forward this fall

[wegetsignalx]

PS4 will remain the most popular console this gen, by about 2:1 in sales and 50% marketshare. That is reality.

[Lennoxb63]

Of course PC sells more. Their multiplats range from $15-$30. This is why devs like console more. They don't have to sell as much to make a profit.

[Pandamobile]

Lol that's the opposite of happens in reality.

PC multi platform games are usually cheaper, yes, but they also have higher margins because there's less hands taking pieces of the pie.

[Lennoxb63]

They still make less money than console developers though. When's the last time you've seen a rich PC game dev. All of the big money studios are console. Bungie, Naughty Dog, EA, etc. That larger piece of the pie comes from a very small pie.

[Pandamobile]

Lol are you serious?

Valve? Riot Games? Blizzard?

All of those companies have more money than they know what to do with. Bungie was owned by Microsoft for 10 years. Sony owns Naughty Dog. EA makes games for everything.

You didn't make a very good point.

[Paleblood]

This would explain why MS is now focusing more on PC gaming lately. They are trying somehow to maintain the xbox brand relevant which is their job to do.

The problem here is that if they merge with PC, IMO, people would rather play on PC than on xbox. MS must he careful with that strategy because it could result on something good or it could destroy the xbox platform.

[joeorc]

I doubt Microsoft looks at that way as destroying the Xbox brand, because with the moves that Microsoft is taking with Windows 10 being the under score lynchpin of moving forward in unifying software and services from PC, the Xbox brand being included to be merged with their PC OS powered devices IE: windows 10 OS.

To Microsoft the Xbox branded device is a Media center PC with main goal of bolstering windows 10 OS adoption. The Xbox brand is headed toward direction of the consumer to choose the Windows 10 OS eco system. The Xbox platform is just another device powered by Microsoft's new Windows OS 10 because with the windows 10 App player for the Xbox it pretty much is the Media Center PC that they always envisioned for the Xbox platform since its creation as a platform.

[BongSmack]

Oh My God! So?

[Flames76]

Troll article anytime you look at sales the pc is nowhere to be seen.Sorry better look next time and try to make something more believable next time please lol

[Azzanation]

Titanfall - X1 2.6m
Titanfall - PC 0.5k

I just randomly looked up a game on both and seems to me that the X1 killed the PC versions in sales and i am a PC gamer.

Not that this matters.

[Pandamobile]

That's likely only counting physical PC sales. There's no way to accurately track digital sales numbers.

[ShottyGibs]

Yes... That's physical copies. Now fathom
90 percent of PC games are digital sales.

[Azzanation]

True however I highly doubt if there was a digital sales chart it wouldn't make up the difference.

[midnightambler]

VGChartz data is super unreliable. Just saying.