Microsoft says PlayStation holds 80% market share in Europe

Microsoft sat down with the European Commission once again this week to further argue its case for the Activision Blizzard acquisition. In a press briefing after the meeting, Microsoft laid out its case, revealing Sony's dominant position in the European console market. 

At the briefing, Microsoft President, Brad Smith, produced a chart showing the European console market share between Xbox and PlayStation. According to the chart, Sony holds a dominant 80% share of the market. Globally, Microsoft fares a little better, with the split improving to 70/30 in Sony's favour. In Japan specifically, PlayStation dwarfs Xbox with a market share split of 96% to 4%.

As transcribed by GI.biz, Smith said the following about the numbers: “Think about the market in Europe. It is a market where Sony has an 80% share. Globally, it is about 70/30. In Japan, it is 96/4. These numbers have been remarkably steady for two decades. Even last year, when there were issues with Sony's supply chain, they came back strong.”

Smith elaborated on that, saying that even in the midst of console shortages, supply chain constraints and Covid-related delays, Sony was still able to maintain its lead. In late 2022, PlayStation outsold Xbox by 69/31.

At this point, Microsoft has laid out the argument that Sony is the market leader and has attempted to assuage COD exclusivity concerns by agreeing to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo consoles, in addition to continued support on current platforms. To address concerns around a potentially dominant position in the cloud gaming market, Microsoft has agreed to bring its Xbox PC games to Nvidia's rival streaming service, GeForce Now.

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KitGuru Says: Microsoft seems open to remedial measures but there is of course a limit. When asked if Microsoft would consider selling off Call of Duty in order to push the deal through, Smith shot the idea down. With that in mind, we'll just have to wait and see how much regulators plan on demanding in order to approve the acquisition. 

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