The summer is already heating up nicely between console giants Xbox and PlayStation, as three games from the former’s studios have become top-sellers for the latter.
Based on the information released by PlayStation, the three top-selling games are all from studios that Xbox owns. Typically, there won’t be much inference to draw, but these are two institutions that have been on opposite ends in the console wars. The recent success could also end up changing the relationship between the two and the face of console wars as we know them.
Xbox games dominated PlayStation’s downloads for April
Based on the official information from PlayStation, the top three spots for game downloads during April were dominated by Xbox first-party studios. This includes numbers for both the EU and the US/Canada. Here are the rankings.
US/Canada
EU
There have been a lot of question marks and discussions about Xbox’s recent strategy regarding video game accessibility. BothForza Horizon 5andMinecrafthave been console exclusives for a long time (aside from being available on PC). Both games becoming available on PlayStation consoles was a tad surprising. Between the two,Forza Horizon 5is the more recent entrant.
Based on the number of downloads (none of these games are free-to-play), we can safely assume that there’s an incredible demand from PlayStation users to experience these games (irrespective of them coming from Xbox-owned studios).
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered and Forza Horizon 5 topped the PlayStation Store download charts in April. Check out the complete list:https://t.co/IIfYsEMbAupic.twitter.com/e9c8djQfY7
TheElder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remasteredwas the semi-shadow drop that happened during the last week of April, but it managed to grab the attention of PlayStation users. The news won’t surprise anyone because theOG Oblivionhas always been an incredibly popular title. Bethesda definitely managed to hit the mark with theRemasterededition. Releasing it on PlayStation on day one helped it to grab its spot in the top-3 in both regions.
How could the numbers affect the future?
It’s pretty clear that Xbox will continue to release games on PlayStation (despite the latter not doing the same). We have seen them following this pattern for the last few months, and it’s likely to continue given the clear commercial success.
It’s unlikely that we will see Sony reciprocating the favor anytime soon (although we have been witnessing an increasing number of PC ports). I have always been in favor of games being accessible to as many people as possible, and these numbers just prove that the so-called console wars fall flat when the games are high-quality. It doesn’t matter who makes the games; players will back them as long as they’re available on their chosen platform.
