PS4, Xbox One Sales Outpacing PS3 & Xbox 360 at Same Point

New figures released earlier today have revealed that the latest generation of consoles is on track to eclipse the sales achieved by the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. 44% more PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles have been sold than their predecessors managed at the same point in their lifespan.

These numbers come from EA COO Peter Moore, who was speaking to investors as part of the company’s Q1 2016 earnings call. Naturally, it’s good news for anyone with money in a multi-platform developer like EA, as a greater number of consoles out in the wild is going to lead to more sales.

Moore went on to state that the all-important stat of attach rate is also slightly up over the last generation, now sitting at 6.1% rather than 5.9%. In the video game industry, attach rate refers to the amount of games each console owner buys for an individual system.

It will no doubt be of interest to many that the latest consoles are managing such brisk sales — Moore also noted that EA expects the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One to have reached 49 million units sold combined by the end of this year.

Some would argue that this generation is still struggling to find its feet, with several notable botched launches and an over-reliance on business practices like DLC and season passes frustrating a lot of users. However, that doesn’t seem to have had any sort of negative impact on the industry at large.

Instead, it seems that video games are becoming more popular than ever. Their increased focus in popular culture at large would seem to suggest this is the trend, but seeing these figures really drives home the reality of the situation. The market for PlayStation and Xbox consoles is still growing.

However, there are a couple of caveats to keep in mind. For one, Peter Moore and EA are talking to a very specific audience as part of this earnings call. It’s difficult to take their insight on console sales as being completely unbiased given the relationship between their business interests and the facts.

Secondly, there’s the impact of Nintendo on this data. Last gen, the Wii was a sales behemoth — something that the Wii U hasn’t been able to replicate. It’s perhaps unwise to make broader assumptions about console sales without factoring Nintendo in, but it’s clear that the company’s systems don’t factor into EA’s plans very much.

The biggest takeaway here should be that EA is committed to its own business practices. The company has grown to its current stature by targeting as broad a range of consumers as possible, and there’s no better way to do that than by gauging what systems those customers are using.