Jacob Mazel

As of January 31, 2009 Sony’s PS3 console has seen its sales to gamers reach 20.07m units . It took the PS3 98 weeks in Europe, 115 weeks in the Americas, 117 weeks in Japan, and up to 116 weeks in Other markets (Other markets have seen multiple small launches worldwide) for the PS3 to break through the 20m units barrier. Over 90% of all PS3s are sold in the first three major regions though.

Approximately 1.42m PS3s have been sold in markets outside the big three regions depicted above, hence the star. Dividing regional totals by weeks of availability in that region shows that Europe is the best region for PS3. The Americas, with most of sales coming from the USA and Canada, is almost exactly three times bigger in population than Japan, and weekly averages and totals follow this exactly, as the 70,000 weekly average in the Americas is just shy of three times the weekly average of Japan sales. In Europe, the PS3 is over 15% stronger than it is in the Americas, with weekly sales of over 82,000 units.

Here is how other videogame machines have done in the same number of week as PS3, to offer some context on the performance of PS3.

The Wii is starred because it has not been out for 117 weeks in Japan, as the other platforms have been, which means the console has sold at least 40.024m units in the time frame PS3 has been available in the big three regions. In Europe, PS3 launched in March. The PS2 launched in Europe during November. With PS3 just going through its second Christmas bounce in Europe, it has closed to within 10% of the PS2 pace in Europe. Historically, PS3 has yet to fall more than 30% off the PS2 pace in any week in Europe, and most weeks are about 15-20% in favor of PS2. But with premium pricing compared to the PS2, Europe is clearly the best region for PS3 sales. It is also the region where Sony has its biggest lead on Microsoft through the same number of weeks from launch – 5.7m. Even in Japan, through 117 weeks the PS3 lead on Xbox 360 is only about 2.3m. So even though Japanese gamers prefer PS3 to Xbox 360 by a larger margin – 5:1, than Europeans do – 24:10, Europe is where the PS3 had outsold the 360 the most in a comparable time frame.

In the Americas, Xbox 360 outsold PS3 over the 115 week period from launch by about a third. PS2 had sold more than twice as many units in the same number of weeks, and Wii managed nearly three times as many units. DS and PSP are also ahead from their respective launches to respective 115^th weeks. The Americas situation is ultimately quite similar to Europe, with the major differences being that Europe prefers PS3 to 360, while the Americas prefer 360 to PS3. PSP also sold less than PS3 in Europe in the same number of weeks that PS3 had been out.

In Japan, PS3 is well off the pace of PSP, PS2, Wii and DS over the same period. Through 117 weeks, PS2 has sold over three times as many units as the PS3 in Japan. This is a steeper drop than in any world region, and rather fascinating since the PS2 to PS3 price increase in Japan was never as sharp as in the USA or Europe, the ongoing weakness of Xbox 360 in Japan, and the slowing sales pace of Wii in Japan. In the same number of weeks across the three world regions, PS2 saw 25% of its sales from Japan, PS3 sees 15%. With the ongoing strength of the Yen against weakening western currencies Sony should be doing everything in its power to push the number of PS3s sold in Japan without dropping the price.

Nonetheless, despite a massive resurgence in Nintendo’s power over the last several years, the PS3 has managed to outsell the Xbox 360, its primary competitor, through the 98/115/117 week threshold it took to reach 20m. Microsoft’s strength through this time frame remained mostly in the USA and UK, allowing Sony to offset a deficit in the Americas (2.8m off the 360 pace) with a ~6.9m surplus in Japan and Europe.

In weeks after this in Europe and Japan, where Microsoft’s console has seen an upswing in sales due to price cuts, it will be interesting to see if the Sony pace advantage through comparable time frames will hold up.

Contact Vgchartz at jmazel@vgchartz.com