More People Pre-Ordered PS5 Than Xbox Series X, According to Study

A new study conducted by VGM showed more people were reportedly interested and successful in pre-ordering a PlayStation 5 than the Xbox Series X. Among those surveyed, PlayStation 5 accounted for 72% of the pre-orders from those who were able to successfully pre-order a console at all while the Xbox Series X accounted for 30% of the pre-orders. Those numbers suggest that some of the people surveyed bought more than one console. A significant portion of people were also unable to purchase a console at all during the pre-order period.

VGM, a research company focused on insights into the video game industry, shared the study (via GI.biz) where the company arrived at this information by surveying 511 people in the United States. The survey was conducted between September 23-25, a timeframe where the Xbox Series X and Series S pre-orders had just recently gone live and the PlayStation 5 pre-orders had already come and gone quicker than most people could respond to.

Among those 511 people surveyed, only 15% of them – so close to 77 people – said they were successful in pre-ordering a next-gen console. Within that group comes the numbers referenced previously that showed 72% of people getting the disc version of the PlayStation 5 while 30% got the Xbox Series X. The PlayStation 5 Digital Edition and Xbox Series S accounted for 10% and 8% of the pre-orders, respectively. A total of 29% of people surveyed said they tried to pre-order a console and were not able to at all.

More interesting facts from the study dealt with which console-exclusive games were most enticing when it came to buying a new console. For the PlayStation 5, the most appealing game was Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales which will launch with the console, and for the Xbox Series X, the most appealing game was Halo Infinite which was delayed and will not be launching with the console.

The sample size is small, especially when it's narrowed down to the low number of people who were actually able to secure a pre-order for one of the consoles, but it presents a scale view of how people are spending their money on the next generation of consoles. It also lines up with a previous study from VGM conducted in July where it surveyed 500 people on their plans to purchase the next-gen consoles. Twice as many people said they wanted to buy a PlayStation 5 compared to the Xbox Series X, and the most appealing games on both consoles were again Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Halo Infinite.