Microsoft Finally Admits Sony's PlayStations Are Outselling Xbox Consoles 2 To 1

The console war has been taken to the courts in Brazil, as Microsoft defends its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. In addition, new court documents also have Microsoft finally giving Sony credit where credit is due as it recognized the PlayStation 4 console outsold the Xbox One X two to one.

Back at the beginning of 2022, Microsoft announced its intention to acquire Activision Blizzard for an estimated $68.7 billion. The move did not sit well with other companies, such as Sony, and now has Microsoft defending its intent to buy Activision Blizzard in a courtroom in front of the Brazilian competition authority, CADE.

A large part of the issue Sony is taking with the merger, is that Microsoft will be able to put titles like Call of Duty on the company's very lucrative Game Pass subscription. By doing so, Sony believes it would give Microsoft an unfair advantage in the gaming space, and ultimately tip the scale too far in the Redmond, WA, based tech giant's favor.

In order to defend itself, Microsoft has finally admitted in recent court documents that the PlayStation 4 console outsold its Xbox One X two to one, as spotted by GameLuster.

Around the same time Microsoft was announcing its intent to buy Activision Blizzard, Sony was announcing a milestone of its own. The company confirmed that it had sold more than 116 million PS4 consoles worldwide, which has grown to over 117 million since. If the court documents are correct in that the PS4 sold twice as many units, that would mean that Microsoft only sold around 50-60 million Xbox One X consoles in the same time period.

In regard to games such as the highly popular Call of Duty being placed on Game Pass and creating an unfair market advantage, Microsoft says that is not the case. The Xbox maker argues that gamers will still be able to purchase any of the games housed under the Activision Blizzard banner, which include "through traditional buy-to-play channels such as the PlayStation console (as translated via Google Translate)." Microsoft says that this fact reduces the need for players to migrate to another platform simply to access games via Game Pass.

Microsoft continues to state that the company is moving away from the "console wars," and develop more "gamer-centric" strategies, such as Game Pass. However, no matter who the Brazilian court ultimately sides with, the console war is still alive and well and is probably not going away any time soon.

Top Image Credit: Microsoft/PlayStation/Activision Blizzard