Microsoft and Sony may be getting along in public, but the console war is still going strong.
Until sales figures are known, we will not know who "won" this particular battle. However, by utilizing good old data, we can get an idea of which console is likely to be in the most demand.
Rise at Seven used Google search data to find out which game consoles are more popular in each country. As you can see from the map below, there is a pretty clear winner.
There are a lot of countries that are grayed out due to lack of data, but the rest show that the PS5 is more popular across the planet; the Xbox Series X still wins a few countries, including China, Mexico, and New Zealand, but the map just doesn't look very good.
Fortunately for Xbox, the numbers are a bit kinder. But only a little. In the US, for example, Xbox has 43.02% compared to PlayStation's 56.98%. Similarly, in the UK, the PS5 took the crown with 57.28% of searches compared to Xbox's 42.72%.
Interestingly, the most popular country for Xbox was Afghanistan, where it dominated 90.72% of searches. Meanwhile, the PlayStation's biggest fan was the Maldives with 99.74%, followed closely by Dominica with 99.12% and Japan with 98.94%. Given the historical poor performance of the Xbox in Japan, it is not surprising that they are among the most avid PS5 fans.
Of course, data is not everything. After all, Microsoft is launching two very different consoles on November 10. For example, the price.
Series X is also in a strange situation. This is because all first-party games in Series X will also be available on Xbox One and PC. If you can only afford one console and are lucky to get one due to availability issues, it makes more sense to opt for the one with more exclusive games.
Or maybe people really do prefer the PS5. So far, everything we've seen looks great, and like the size, it looks much better than the fridge-like beauty of the Xbox Series X.
Sony executives must be very pleased with the positive reception the console has received so far, and this map is sure to lift their spirits even more.
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