PS5 will outsell Xbox Series X and S by two to one in 2022, analyst predicts

PS5 vs Xbox Series X
(Image credit: Future)

An industry analyst predicts that the PS5 will outsell the Xbox Series X|S by double, but that still won't make it the best-selling console in the market.

The prediction comes from Piers Harding-Rolls, a games industry specialist at the London-based Ampere Analysis. In a video interview posted to Twitter (as spotted by VGC), Harding-Rolls cited strong demand and restricted supplies of components as the two main reasons for why both Sony and Microsoft had difficulty keeping their new consoles in stock all throughout 2021.

"The big question is how will that evolve over this coming year? It looks like the availability of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles is going to improve slowly over the year," Harding-Rolls said. "And our expectation is that Sony will outsell Microsoft two-to-one. But actually the biggest selling console in the market is going to be Nintendo Switch at 21 million units, and that will be driven by demand for the new Nintendo Switch OLED."

Ampere predicted that 9 million Xbox Series consoles and 18 million PS5 consoles will be sold in 2022. According to Sony's latest accounting, it had sold 13.4 million PS5 consoles as of September 2021. Moving 18 million in the space of a year would be a step up, yet not a seemingly unreachable goal for the company's new-gen console.

If you're hoping to be one of those millions of new console owners this year, you can hedge your bet by staying tuned to our guide to PS5 restock updates and Xbox Series X restock updates.

PRODUCTS
Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.

Read more
Nintendo Switch 2 with Mario Kart on screen next to original Nintendo Switch with teal backdrop
Nintendo can handle 20 million Switch 2 sales in the console's first year, analyst predicts – hopefully preventing any scalper plagues
Super Mario 64
Market research firm says either Sony or Microsoft will "struggle" with their next-gen consoles as Nintendo will be "the clear winner"
Nintendo Switch ad showing Bowser and Bowser Jr, the latter playing on a Switch while the former watches with a surprised expression on his face
Analyst predicts Switch 2 supply will struggle with "significant early demand surge," PS5 will still end up the best-selling hardware for US in 2025
A screenshot from the reveal trailer for the Nintendo Switch 2, showing the console playing a Mario Kart game.
Leading analysts predict the Nintendo Switch 2 could shift anywhere between 14 million and 20 million units in its first year - if Nintendo can keep up with demand
PlayStation 30th Anniversary
Despite selling well initially, the PS5 Pro has since "fallen behind" the PS4 Pro in sales, says analyst
Mario faces the camera with a thumbs up pose in Super Smash Bros. Ulimate.
Nintendo Switch clears 150 million sales, closing gap with PS2 once again after Sony bumped up its own figures last year
Latest in Platforms
Balatro
Balatro creator started "properly playing the game myself about a week before launch" and had "a pretty emotional moment" where he realized it's "actually fun"
Death Stranding 2 Collector's Edition
Hideo Kojima reveals Death Stranding 2: On the Beach release date, and the Collector's Edition includes exactly what I predicted it would
Kingmakers
Kingmakers is a strategy game about taking on medieval armies with a gun, but its devs thought the giant mech was too much
The Witcher 3 lead says "not many games" were trying to match the RPG back in 2015, and that meant "there was a risk" to making it in the first place
The Blood of Dawnwalker
The Witcher 3 dev says his new vampire RPG Blood of Dawnwalker wants to challenge genre conventions, but only if "we're changing them to actually achieve some goal"
A misty, forested mountainside in Prologue: Go Wayback!
PUBG creator's wilderness survival game actually draws inspiration from an unexpected place - a whole raft of zombie games like DayZ, Project Zomboid, and Left 4 Dead
Latest in News
Balatro
Balatro creator started "properly playing the game myself about a week before launch" and had "a pretty emotional moment" where he realized it's "actually fun"
Death Stranding 2 Collector's Edition
Hideo Kojima reveals Death Stranding 2: On the Beach release date, and the Collector's Edition includes exactly what I predicted it would
Kingmakers
Kingmakers is a strategy game about taking on medieval armies with a gun, but its devs thought the giant mech was too much
The Witcher 3 lead says "not many games" were trying to match the RPG back in 2015, and that meant "there was a risk" to making it in the first place
The Blood of Dawnwalker
The Witcher 3 dev says his new vampire RPG Blood of Dawnwalker wants to challenge genre conventions, but only if "we're changing them to actually achieve some goal"
Daredevil recap: The Defenders
Marvel fans are discussing which of the Netflix series characters would have survived the Blip