Both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X have been impossible to buy by just strolling into a store. There have been long digital waiting lines, lottery solutions and a whole lot of scalpers buying everything.
This means it has mostly been a question of who can deliver more consoles in comparisons between PlayStation and Xbox. So far, Sony has been better at this and even if they have been beaten in some markets at several occasions, they have never sold less PlayStation 5s than Xbox Series S/X over a full month in Europe. Until now.
As revealed by the GamesIndustry.biz boss Christopher Dring on Twitter, it turns out that Xbox Series S/X sold most in Europe in February:
"It was a great month for new games. Console sales continue to struggle. PS5 stock levels meant that, for the first time, more Xbox Series consoles were sold than PS5s (in tracked European markets)."
Sony said last month that they had forecasted "an expected decrease in PlayStation 5 hardware unit sales" as a result of semi-conductor shortages. This does not seem to have hit Microsoft quite as hard as they also have the Xbox Series S, but they are also suffering. And Russia's war against Ukraine sure isn't going to improve the situation either.