Console wars: PlayStation 4 sales will likely stay ahead of Xbox One

Sony announced on Tuesday that 2.1 million PlayStation 4 units were sold globally. Xbox One is also selling well, but based on gaming surveys, it looks like the PS4 will be slightly ahead for the forseeable future.

Now that Sony's next-generation console has been released in Europe and Australia, Bloomberg reports that the company expects to meet their benchmarks in sales and contribute the $100 lower price tag to help Sony.

Sony is confident it can meet analysts sales estimates of 3 million units by year-end and its own target of 5 million units by March, Jack Tretton, president and chief executive officer of the company’s U.S. computer entertainment division, said Nov. 11.

Sony’s previous version of the console, the PS3, sold 197,000 consoles in the first month after it was released in the U.S. on Nov. 17, 2006, NPD Group, which tracked sales of video games and consoles, said at the time.

Even better news for Sony: GameSpot used a 12-month survey from November 2012 to October 2013 to determine which "general gamers" would "rate their likelihood to purchase either an XB1 or a PS4."

Due to the new Xbox's customer outcry of not being able to share games and needing the Kinect and internet always connected (all of which they explained and changed in the past), nearly 45 percent of people that wouldn't purchase a next-gen console wouldn't purchase an XB1. That numbered dropped last October to 35 percent. In comparison, the PS4 is currently under 10 percent.

Of those that were going to purchase a next-gen console during this time period, nearly 45 percent of them were going with a PS4 (the highest in the survey period) compared to the XB1 which hovers around 15 percent.

XB1 is trending in the right direction, but all signs point to the PS4 having the better sales throughout its life cycle with a faster start - possibly even domestically.

The question will be if they can hold that progress in the upcoming years, and how popular PC gaming becomes as it has throughout the later parts of last generation.

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