PlayStation Has Double The Monthly Active Users Xbox Has, Says Microsoft

Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard took another turn yesterday when the UK CMA formally opposed the purchase.

The UK Competition and Markets Authority report included a lot of exciting info about Xbox and PlayStation. And one such tidbit that caught our eye was regarding the number of users both of these consoles have. In the CMA report, Microsoft said that PlayStation has double the monthly active users (MAUs) of Xbox.

Considering how the recent financial report put the PlayStation Network MAUs at 112 million, Xbox probably has around 50-55 million MAUs. Such a number is shocking, considering how the console is supposed to be one of PlayStation’s main competitors.

The Microsoft-Activision deal has come across a lot of hurdles in the last few months. From the FTC trying to block the acquisition to the European Union stepping in to warn Microsoft, the drama has been non-stop. However, the most interesting part of this ordeal has been going down in the UK.

After numerous reports, the UK CMA officially released a statement opposing the acquisition of Activision by Microsoft. Higher prices, less innovation, and fewer choices were the main reasons for this, according to the CMA. Recommended solutions include selling off the Call of Duty brand or the Activision brand.

Sony played a part in this happening as the company told the UK body that the acquisition would give Xbox an unfair advantage. Hence, the company was also a constituent of this CMA report for comparison and data. As a result, we got some interesting info about PlayStation from the UK competition authority.

One such tidbit was that PlayStation has more than double the MAUs of Xbox. Microsoft itself put this info forward in the “Party Views” section of the Provisional Findings. And it’s pretty clear that the American company thinks PlayStation is far ahead of Xbox.

To put this into numbers, PlayStation has 112 million Monthly Active Users as of the FY2022 Quarter 3 financial report. If Microsoft says Xbox has less than half of this number, then it probably has around 50-55 million MAUs.

Obviously, these are just estimates based on PlayStation’s MAUs and not concrete numbers, as Microsoft did not release them.

According to the Xbox creator, PlayStation also has twice the installed console base worldwide as of 2022. Microsoft said that PlayStation has the largest share of the console market in the world. In the report, the company submitted that the console brand constitutes 40-50% of the global market.

Sony Q3 earnings are out:

• 7.1 million PS5 shipments over holiday quarter, up a massive 82% YoY
• 46.4 million PlayStation Plus subscribers, down 4%
• 112 million monthly active PlayStation Network users
• PlayStation software units down 7%, but revenue up and 1P up pic.twitter.com/6p7nbxHTCy

— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) February 2, 2023

On the other hand, Xbox has a global market share of 20-30%, according to Microsoft. Nintendo is No.2 globally with a market share of 30-40%. These numbers vary slightly in the UK, where PlayStation leads once again with a similar market share of 40-50%.

However, Xbox is ahead of Nintendo and controls 30-40% of the console industry in the UK. So, anywhere you look, PlayStation is leading the pack according to Microsoft’s metrics. Xbox is also lacking in terms of hardware, according to the numbers all of the parties submitted.

PlayStation is far ahead of Xbox as it controls 40-50% of the hardware market, reflecting the install base numbers. Nintendo is also above Xbox with a 30-40% market share. Meanwhile, the Microsoft console only has a 10-20% market share, which is staggering.

To say the least, all of these figures are interesting and do reflect the position of Xbox in the global market. But, if Microsoft wants the deal to go through, it will have to first get through the CMA. Hopefully, whatever happens, it is good for gamers worldwide.