After acquiring several companies and shifting to multiple platforms, Microsoft’s new dominance in the gaming industry is evident in the sales charts on the PlayStation Store.
While Microsoft’s long-term plans for gaming hardware are uncertain, their efforts to become a comprehensive multi-platform publisher are already proving successful.
The company has purchased several studios in recent years, including DoubleFine and Ninja Theory, but their acquisition of Bethesda in 2021 and Activision Blizzard last year – the biggest acquisition in video game history, both for Microsoft and overall.
Initially, the plan was to make Bethesda games Xbox exclusive, but the changing economics of the industry has led them to make many exclusive Xbox games available on multiple platforms, and in recent months, games like Grounded, Pentiment, and Hi-Fi Rush have arrived on rival consoles.
The effects of Microsoft’s decisions in recent years, and the gradual dissolution of boundaries between different hardware platforms, are clearly demonstrated by the current list of the top-selling games on the PlayStation Store, with Microsoft-owned games making up the majority of the top 25.
As noted by TweakTown, the PlayStation Store listings on Thursday, April 18 in the US show that Microsoft has seven games in the top 25: Call Of Duty, Overwatch 2, Sea Of Thieves (via pre-orders), Fallout 4, Minecraft, Fallout 76, and Grounded.
Meanwhile, Sony has five games in the top 25, including MLB The Show 24, Helldivers 2, Destiny 2, Stellar Blade (also a pre-order), and Rise Of The Ronin. The rest of the top-selling games are from Take-Two, EA, Capcom, and others.
It’s a similar situation with the PlayStation Store top-sellers in the UK. As of April 19, Microsoft has seven games in the top 20, while Sony only has two, including Helldivers 2 and Destiny 2.
It’s worth noting that the top-sellers chart includes free-to-play games like Fortnite and Overwatch 2, while Fallout has experienced a significant increase in sales due to the TV show adaptation. Nevertheless, it’s still an intriguing insight into how the rivalry between gaming companies is shifting away from purely being based on hardware.
While Microsoft has plans for new consoles, earlier this year, the company stated that it was ‘committed to the next generation roadmap’ and pledged ‘the most significant technical advancement you’ve ever seen in a hardware generation’ – a bold assertion that is believed to be related to AI in some way.
There are rumors that a new Xbox console could launch in 2026, which may include a hybrid handheld device, as suggested by Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer alluded to on multiple occasions.
What’s intriguing about the current situation is that much of it appears to be the result of a sudden but successful pivot, with both Microsoft and Sony scrambling after disappointing sales for Christmas 2023.
It’s evident from the evidence presented in the Activision Blizzard court case that Microsoft originally planned to make all Bethesda games exclusive, and they were probably not sincere about wanting to keep Call Of Duty available on multiple platforms.
However, recent events have made releasing games on multiple platforms seem much more attractive, and instances like this are likely to make Microsoft embrace the idea more enthusiastically, rather than just as a gesture to appease antitrust investigators.
