Analyst: PlayStation 5 to outsell Xbox Series X by 29 million units

Sony's next-gen PS5 will outsell the Xbox Series X by over 29 million units by 2024, analyst firm Ampere Analysis predicts.

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Ampere Analysis' latest report lays out some pretty hefty sales predictions for next-gen consoles. By 2024, four years into the hardware cycle, the PS5 is expected to hit 66 million sales, achieving over 60% of the PlayStation 4's total 110.4 million lifetime sales in five years on the market (the PS4 sold 80 million units by this period). The Xbox Series X, however, is expected to sell a dramatically less 37 million units.

That means by 2024, the PlayStation 5 is expected to have sold 29 million more units than the Xbox Series X. The PS5 is also expected to beat the Xbox Series X by 1.3 million units at launch. The main reason? Sony's existing platform domination with the PlayStation 4 will carry forward into next-gen thanks to backwards compatibility.

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"By the end of 2024 we expect combined global sell-through for Sony and Microsoft's next-gen consoles of 103 million compared to 109 million in the Xbox One/PS4 cycle, and for PS5 to outsell Xbox Series X (and any future less powerful next-gen Xbox) with 66 million sales to consumers compared to 37 million in the same timeframe," Ampere wrote in the report.

Interestingly enough, the firm doesn't think higher console prices will hinder demand. This seems to counter Sony's plans, though. Sources say Sony is restricting PS5 hardware supply to 5-6 million units from launch until March 31, 2021 due to higher MSRP.

"Higher pricing is actually predicted to have a minimal impact on adoption at launch as we believe that within a certain range - less than $500 - price is not a major factor."

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Sony has yet to reveal pricing of the PlayStation 5 console, but it's believed to cost $450 to manufacture, putting the system at a more premium $499 price target.

Both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X release Holiday 2020. Check below for more information on each:

PlayStation 5 specs and details:

• Custom SoC with second-gen Navi GPU, Zen 2 CPU
• 8-Core, 16-thread Zen 2 CPU at 3.5GHz
• Navi 2X GPU with 36 CUs on RDNA 2 at 2.23GHz
• Ultra-fast 825GB SSD with up to 9GB/sec speeds
• Support for 4K 120 Hz TVs
• Ray-tracing enabled
• 8K output support (for gaming)
• Plays PS4 games, BC is on a title-to-title basis
• Separate games that ship on BD-XL Blu-ray discs
• New controller with extensive haptic and tactile feedback

Xbox Series X confirmed details (Formerly Project Scarlett):

• 8-core, 16-thread Zen 2 CPU
• 12.15 TFLOP Navi GPU on RDNA 2 architecture
• 7nm+ AMD SoC
• 16GB GDDR6 memory
• 2x Xbox One X's 6TFLOPs of GPU perf
• 4x CPU power of Xbox One generation
• Can deliver up to 40x more performance than Xbox One in specific use cases
• Adaptive sync supported
• Super-fast SSD that can be used as VRAM
• Supports 8K resolution (likely media playback)
• 120FPS gaming
• Variable refresh rate (adaptive sync/FreeSync)
• Variable Rate Shading
• Raytracing confirmed with dedicated raytracing cores
• Backward compatible with thousands of Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox One games
• New controller with a dedicated share button
• Compatible with Xbox One accessories