The success of Sony in the current generation of consoles has been fairly well documented, with PS4 sales topping 50 million worldwide at the end of last year. However, now the gaming community can see exactly how much of the console market is controlled by the company, thanks to a recent report from IHS Markit that reveals Sony held a huge 57 percent share of the console market in 2016.

This share comes down to a total of $19.7 billion spent by gamers, which is split between hardware, software, and service markets. Apparently, Sony is also estimating that this domination of the console market will continue into 2017, and the company is even predicting that its sales will reach above the $20 million mark, placing this additional rise on the continued expansion of the digital gaming market.

This, of course, comes down to the huge success of the PS4. The console had almost double the market share of Microsoft’s Xbox One, with the Microsoft system reaching an install base of just over 27 million by the end of 2016. With that in mind, it’s easy to see how Sony could take up such a large portion of the market in general.

At the moment, the PS4 itself doesn’t show much sign of slowing down, either, with continued strong sales into 2017. Sony’s console took the top spot in sales in both January and February, which is a testament to the staying power of the PS4.

However, 2017 will bring with it many more challenges for Sony, with its competitors stepping up their attempts to take back control of console gaming. Nintendo has now launched the Switch console, which has had a very solid start to its life on the market, while Microsoft will also release Project Scorpio by the end of the year. It’s certainly a tougher line-up of competition than Sony faced in 2016, which means that the company may need to find other ways to keep its stranglehold on the market.

Of course, releasing interesting new software for the PS4 will certainly help matters, and the start of 2017 is already going well from that point of view. After all, Horizon: Zero Dawn is now Sony’s best-selling new intellectual property for the PS4, selling a phenomenal 2.6 million copies since its launch. Sony will no doubt be hoping that other releases over the course of 2017 will be equally as strong.

Posted: Mar 16, 2017 9:55 pm
Related Forum: PlayStation Forum

Source: https://gamerant.com/sony-control-half-console-market/