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


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.

In order to calculate both retail and digital sales for consoles, we used the following formula. Back in 2014, the NPD Group claimed that up to 25% of sales for current-gen consoles were digital (that’s the max, so we’ll be using that number in favour of Microsoft’s console). Therefore, we calculated via this percentage the total amount of the digital sales for a number of games, and added them to VGChartz’s numbers (VGChartz tracks only retail sales).

Obviously, we calculated triple-A games that were released on all three platforms.

For what is worth, the PS4 outperformed all platforms, suggesting that Sony’s console is doing more than great. However, Xbox One’s games sales are below those of PC in a lot of games, so that’s the two platforms we’ll be comparing here.

Let’s start with Alien: Isolation. Alien: Isolation sold 120K PC retail copies and 320K Xbox One retail copies. Moreover, according to Steamspy the game sold 427K copies on Steam (do note that this is not a Steamworks powered game, so we can add those numbers in order to find out the real PC sales). This means that Alien: Isolation sold 547K copies on the PC and 426K copies on Xbox One (320K retail + 106K digital).

Dying Light is another example in which the PC version outsells the Xbox One version. The game sold 640K units on Steam, whereas the Xbox One version hit 506K units (both retail and digital sales. Note that we’re not even adding any retail numbers to the PC version in this case).

Lords of the Fallen is yet another example of the PC topping Xbox One. The game sold 218K units on Steam and 146K units on Xbox One (both retail and digital sales counted for Xbox One).

Square Enix’s THIEF also sold amazingly well on the PC. THIEF managed to hit 1 million sold units on the PC. On the other hand, Square Enix sold 506K units on Xbox One (both retail and digital sales counted).

Tomb Raider also sold better on the PC. Nixxes did an amazing job with the port and while the game was released at a later date on Xbox One, its sales never came close to those of its PC version. Tomb Raider sold 3 million units on Steam and 440K units on Xbox One (both retail and digital sales counted).

Dark Souls II also sold better on the PC than on Xbox One, and the same can be said about Resident Evil: Revelations 2, Sleeping Dogs, Metro: Last Light, Diablo III and Sniper Elite 3.

Naturally, there are some games that sold better on Xbox One than on the PC, however we don’t have the complete sales stats of those games on the PC (as we don’t have access to UPLAY or Origin sales numbers). For example, Assassin’s Creed: Unity sold way better on Xbox One than on the PC, and the same can be said about Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Battlefield: Hardline.

What’s also interesting is that GTA V – a game that was released almost half a year later on the PC – has caught up with Xbox One’s sales. According to Take-Two, over 75 percent of GTA V owners on the PC have purchased their copy digitally, meaning that the game has sold – this far – 3.33 million units on the PC. For comparison purposes, the game sold 3.6 million units on Xbox One.

The same applies to Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. The game was delayed 8-9 months on the PC, however its PC sales are near to its Xbox One sales. Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes sold 264K units on Steam and 306K units on Xbox One (both digital and retail units counted).

All in all, it’s pretty obvious that games sell well on the PC, which could be why more and more publishers are bringing their – once console-only – titles to our platform.