MS: 360 first to reach 10 million in US

Microsoft stats dump touts worldwide figures of 19 million systems sold, 12 million Xbox Live members.

Microsoft has apparently attached a special significance to the number 10 million. Five months before the Xbox 360 launched in November 2005, the company's head of the gaming business Peter Moore publicly stated that the console would sell 10 million units before the end of 2006. Just days into 2007, Microsoft used its CES keynote to announce that it had met that goal. Before and since, the company has publicly announced passing such milestones as 10 million Xbox Live members reached and 10 million pieces of content downloaded from the system's Marketplace storefront.

Today Microsoft added another public proclamation to the stack, saying that the Xbox 360's US installed user base has reached beyond the 10 million mark. The company added that the 360 is the first current-generation console to do so, and stressed the importance of that.

"History has shown us that the first company to reach 10 million in console sales wins the generation battle," said Don Mattrick, the current head of Microsoft's gaming business, in a statement. "We are uniquely positioned to set a new benchmark for the industry."

Worldwide, Microsoft said that the Xbox 360 is up to 19 million systems sold, which it initially claimed was "more than any other current-generation console." After being directed to Nintendo's latest financial results, in which the hardware maker revealed that it had sold more than 24 million Wiis to date, a Microsoft representative recanted the initial statement.

"We apologize for any confusion. Xbox 360 has the largest global install base of any current-generation high definition [emphasis added] gaming console," the representative said.

Microsoft also updated the size of its online user base. Xbox Live now claims 12 million members according to the company, up from 6 million a little over a year ago. Representatives from Sony and Nintendo did not return requests for the latest figures on the US installed user bases of the PlayStation 3 and Wii.

360 Comments

  • BigSmitts07

    Posted May 16, 2008 3:56 pm PT

    well, it did better then the original, eh?

  • fmprodguy

    Posted May 16, 2008 3:01 pm PT

    (eye roll)... Dark, new, unsold consoles that were already built or in the pipline without HDMI... are STILL NEW...

    Just like when the PS2 still sold the big version, for months and months after the slim came out... and the PS3 still sold the 60gig after the 40 and 80 came out...

    Sour grapes... All three of the new consoles have something going for them... if you don't like one, or two of them... or as it seems just HATE one of them. Do everyone one a favor, including your blood pressure and just stay away from that news.

    Growing tired of fanboy hate.

  • brianpoetzel

    Posted May 16, 2008 2:32 pm PT

    I wouldn't really call it censoring. People can still view your comment. All they have to do is click on the "show" button to read it. Hell, half the time those are the comments I read because I want to see what was so bad that they got "hidden".

  • darkride66

    Posted May 16, 2008 1:55 pm PT

    advandam. I've got no problems with people disagreeing with me, that's never been my issue. The ridiculous Thumbsup/Down mechanism is consistently used to censor gamespot member's thoughts. If people used this responsibly to keep morons in line, that would be great, but it's often used to stifle legitimate debate among gamers and that's unfortunate. It's a bit of a touchy subject for me as I'm so often on the receiving end of this, for nothing more than trying to keep a conversation going. Look at my exchange between myself and _guenter_26. Is anything out of line there? Anything bothersome, other than the serious implications if these reports are true? We were rationally discussing an issue and it's effectively blocked. Apparently news forums aren't a place to discuss news. It's madness.

  • advandam

    Posted May 16, 2008 1:50 pm PT

    ok i never said you did say i was an ms fanboy. i was just stating that i'm not, also no-ones sensoring you're comments, ever realised people might not agree with them? after all it our right to agree or disagree. as for game news i read gamespots news, so yeh this is the site for me. hey and guess what i even read the bad news! i dunno maybe looking at peoples views on your comments maybe this isn't the right site for you either. (i think you're last comment was a cheap shot, so i'm returning the favour)

  • darkride66

    Posted May 16, 2008 1:42 pm PT

    advandam. I didn't say you were an MS fanboy. I said MS fanboys like to censor me, because they can't deal with true gamers issues. If you fall into that category, so be it, I don't know who it is that feels the need to attempt to censor every word I type. As for MS passing off refurb units as new units in a newly released bundle, that's actually illegal, and thusly its news. I think this would have a devastating impact on a market MS is already struggling with. Let's hope it's not the case, because MS has worked hard to get past their hardware issues. That's gamer news. If you can't handle gamers news and only happy, shiny 360 news, perhaps this site isn't for you.

  • advandam

    Posted May 16, 2008 12:41 pm PT

    @darkride, i'm not a MS fanboy, i own a 360, i've owned consoles wii, ps2 etc, back to PC, commodore amiga, and started on bbc micro! I chose 360 at the time because it was the best console at the time, and it is a great console i love it! Stop going on about RROD, and refurb consoles it's boring and no-one cares. My PC used to break down all the time, but i never complained. If PS3 had come out when 360 did, who knows it might have had similar hardware failure problems who know...who cares.

  • brianpoetzel

    Posted May 16, 2008 11:52 am PT

    @ darkride. I don't think they try to hide it because they are offended by what you say. I've been watching your news posts for a while now and it's almost it's own sport to give you thumbs down.

  • darkride66

    Posted May 16, 2008 11:18 am PT

    Autolycus "lol darkride is hidden in just about all of his comments."
    Yeah. MS fanboys like to try to censor me. They can't debate, so they hide it, those awful, offensive posts! Poor insecure kids. What's funnier to me is when I take flak for standing up for the 360.

  • Autolycus

    Posted May 16, 2008 10:15 am PT

    lol darkride is hidden in just about all of his comments.

  • Autolycus

    Posted May 16, 2008 10:12 am PT

    Myzz617 -- Actually my 360 has been playing high def movies for over a year AND it has enough power to play high def MPG2/4 videos as well...

  • Autolycus

    Posted May 16, 2008 10:10 am PT

    actually used and refurbished sales dont count. prove to me otherwise.

  • enoslives7

    Posted May 16, 2008 9:56 am PT

    too bad 60% of those units were replacements of dead systems due to the RROD.....the devil is in the details

  • Myzz617

    Posted May 16, 2008 7:35 am PT

    When you sell a refurbished unit it counts as a sale even though you might give out a replacement due to warranty but yet it is all serial numbers. Say i buy a gateway PC and all it does is bluescreens then i get a replacement they fix it and re-sell it. Im not too sure but their figure might be off a little because if the failure rate was pretty ugly then i guess they could have sold 10Mill. The 360 only holds the "hi definition" lead because it has been out longer. They have how many iterations of the 360? Now how many are out for the PS3? 360 is not truely hi def either because you cant watch Hi def movies on it or blu-ray so in theory it sounds like they could be sued the only hi def thing about it is they finally added HDMI ports so the game resolutions would be displayed in hi def.

  • Yuck_Too

    Posted May 16, 2008 6:43 am PT

    lol...darkride carries on non-stop.

    off topic posting again dark?...you'd never do that, always stick to the story at hand and don't trash the competition right?

    At least your posting about the 360 in a article about the 360...that's an improvement.

    I'm off, so I'll leave you kids to bicker away...long weekend and all.

  • brianpoetzel

    Posted May 16, 2008 6:04 am PT

    I don't care about the hardware. It's the games I care about. I'll go where the games are whether they're on the pc, 360, wii or ps3. And besides, most games these days are going multi-plat. The platform you may choose is largely irrelevant.

  • Nineball2112

    Posted May 16, 2008 5:57 am PT

    Since everyone is thumbing down Darkeride66's link about MS selling refurbs as new bundles... here is another link to the story on N4G:

    http://www.n4g.com/industrynews/News-145991.aspx

    That article also contains the link to the French source of the story.

  • luna_chanfui

    Posted May 16, 2008 5:39 am PT

    who cares? we all know that americans is xbox supporters. it's just like "PS3 sales top in Japan"...

    If we care so much about the sale numbers, we might see the result after the releasing of GT5 and MGS 4.U know what I mean..

  • oxytocin

    Posted May 16, 2008 3:16 am PT

    Microsoft is getting cocky. Don't get cocky, Microsoft! Don't be Sony.

  • Silasraven

    Posted May 16, 2008 12:44 am PT

    I just like to play games. Console polotics....no thanks. As long as great games keep coming I'll keep buying and playing. Its all about the games my friends.

    Happy gaming.

  • KnightwingX7

    Posted May 15, 2008 11:36 pm PT

    This is pretty good news considering the Wii is doing so well Globally, and still isn't at that mark quite yet in the US. Most people would just think the WIi is #1 in all categories, except of course game attach rates.

  • PSWi60

    Posted May 15, 2008 10:20 pm PT

    @ all fanboys Be a gamer not a corporate cheerleader

    If you don't like console X don't make fun of it or try to ruin the enjoyment others are getting out of it.

  • _guenter_26

    Posted May 15, 2008 7:02 pm PT

    darkride66
    If they get it for 199 euros and with 2 games then what does it matter also if it is illegal to sell refured consoles in europe then i doubt MS would do it. Anyway, i think it is bs.

  • darkride66 posted May 15, 2008 4:25 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. login to show)

    darkride66

    Posted May 15, 2008 4:25 pm PT (hide)

    _guenter_26 "i want to see this article, also the store might have 360s that are before MS added the HDMI port."
    It's not old stock. This is MS's newest bundle for Europe which was just released today. The original article is in french but I found a summary here. http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=27711

  • darkride66 posted May 15, 2008 4:22 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. login to show)

    darkride66

    Posted May 15, 2008 4:22 pm PT (hide)

    puppiemaster said "At least in Europe we have economies that are not bankrupt, but then again the USA could pull the whole world down."
    Actually the majority of economic indicators are more upbeat than thought. Out of the last 16 major economic reports, over 60% came in over the consensus. Just check the latest ISM numbers to see we've passed the bottom. "The Institute for Supply Management's service-sector index reversed course in April, moving into expansionary territory in the latest sign that the economic downturn may remain mild." The apocalypse has been postponed, again.

  • R3DN1N3

    Posted May 15, 2008 4:16 pm PT

    V-Nine ..great now MS is playing the "fuzzy math" game...sheesh.....
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    I knew I smelled........LIBERAL here............

  • puppiemaster

    Posted May 15, 2008 4:15 pm PT

    What with the world recession coming, I think this generation may have many more twists and turns yet, luxury items are always the first thing that is cut back on, having food and heat is more important than having MGS4 or GOW2.

    At least in Europe we have economies that are not bankrupt, but then again the USA could pull the whole world down.

  • hovanPS3 posted May 15, 2008 4:08 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. login to show)

    hovanPS3

    Posted May 15, 2008 4:08 pm PT (hide)

    3 300 000 Red Rings of Death !

    Way to go Microsoft.

  • R3DN1N3

    Posted May 15, 2008 4:08 pm PT

    V-Nine ..great now MS is playing the "fuzzy math" game...sheesh.....
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    I knew I smelled........LIBERAL here............

  • SonicDBZRacer

    Posted May 15, 2008 3:43 pm PT

    Of course the 360 is sold more the US and parts of Europe, but that it. But the 360 doesn't do so well in Japan like the Wii and PS3 have. But even so by this huge number in the US alone, the 360 is still 2nd around the world, with it gaining up on the Wii, and the PS3 is gaining up on the 360. And I have like three or four accounts on Xbox Live, so I might have been part of their success. lol. ^_^

  • V-Nine

    Posted May 15, 2008 3:17 pm PT

    ..great now MS is playing the "fuzzy math" game...sheesh.....

  • _guenter_26

    Posted May 15, 2008 3:06 pm PT

    darkride66
    i want to see this article, also the store might have 360s that are before MS added the HDMI port.

  • darkride66 posted May 15, 2008 2:52 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. login to show)

    darkride66

    Posted May 15, 2008 2:52 pm PT (hide)

    @ _guenter_26. Oh man, this doesn't look good. I was just reading more about this. These are the new 360 bundles that just went on sale today for 199 Euros across Europe and come with two games. And it is illegal there, and they aren't marked as refurb. People started to get suspicious because of no HDMI port which means they aren't new, then they started to open them up. MS doesn't need anymore legal troubles in Europe. This doesn't look good...

  • _guenter_26

    Posted May 15, 2008 2:43 pm PT

    darkride66
    It isnt illegal to sale refurbed consoles because i went into a game store 5 years ago and they had refubed xboxs(1) on sale with a sticker on it saying it was refurbished. Now i havent seen any 360s with a sticker saying they are refurbished on sale but when you send in your console you get it back.

  • darkride66 posted May 15, 2008 2:37 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. login to show)

    darkride66

    Posted May 15, 2008 2:37 pm PT (hide)

    _guenter_26 said "It isnt illegal to sell refurbed consoles unless the store says they are brand new, all stores should have a sticker on the console saying that it is refurbished"
    It is in the US, and I'm pretty sure in Canada, where I live. I don't know about Europe. According to the article these are brand new bundles MS just put out that have a new case but when opened up they have refurb guts, some even with the repair stickers on them. It sounds like MS is clearly trying to pass these off as new units.

  • _guenter_26

    Posted May 15, 2008 2:33 pm PT

    darkride66
    It isnt illegal to sell refurbed consoles unless the store says they are brand new, all stores should have a sticker on the console saying that it is refurbished. Also they dont count it as another sale because the console has already been sold and when you send in your console you get it back not a replacment.

  • darkride66 posted May 15, 2008 2:31 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. login to show)

    darkride66

    Posted May 15, 2008 2:31 pm PT (hide)

    @ Petri87. The replacements they sent out are refurbs, not new consoles. My 4th replacement 360 was a month older than the one it replaced. And, if this storey is correct, they're SELLING REFURBED UNITS AS NEW! So that's a question that should be put to MS, if you sell a refurb unit pretending its a new unit, do you count that as a new sale? How would you feel if you went to buy a brand new, no rrod 360 only to find it out it's somebodies previously used returned rrod console? @_guenter_26. If MS is passing off rrod consoles as NEW, then yeah. Yeah this is a big deal.

  • darkride66 posted May 15, 2008 2:27 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. login to show)

    darkride66

    Posted May 15, 2008 2:27 pm PT (hide)

    Ok, you guys need to focus. Just this morning an article came out in France that busted open MS's new 199 euro bundle. It looks like they're selling refurb 360's as new. I know this is illegal in the US but if it's true that they are doing this in Europe I think this will be a huge PR blow to MS. And if this is happening, how long has it been happening before they got caught? How does this affect their sales numbers? That's all I was throwing out there. If they are selling refurb units as new, can't you see how this could skew their sales numbers? Let's see how this unfolds. As for Guts5, I would love to respond except I haven't the faintest idea what you're saying in your post. Apparently I've upset you somehow.

  • Petri87

    Posted May 15, 2008 2:23 pm PT

    @darkride66 - Does it even mather SALES WISE if they do sell refurbs? No since they have sent out a replacememt(that doesn't count as a sold console) that would have been sold instead of the refurb if not sent out. And i also think that all companys sell refurbs so i dont think its just MS. Why ttrow away something you can fix by changing a chip or something? Still pretty dirty to do so though.

  • _guenter_26

    Posted May 15, 2008 2:05 pm PT

    darkride66
    You always bring up rrod in 360 articles, it isnt a big deal anymore.

  • snakes3425

    Posted May 15, 2008 1:53 pm PT

    Each system has it's pros and cons. But it's success depends on the game library and more then anything these days: the price. The PS3 is seen as "the Rich Man's Console" for this generation, and more gamers can afford the 360 Elite then the PS3's 80GB Verson.
    If Sony would put out a 120 GB PS3 and slash the price they could overtake Microsoft

  • PSWi60

    Posted May 15, 2008 1:39 pm PT

    uh darkride66? I'm not calling you a fanboy but instead of saying these numbers are lies or gotten through evil practices maybe give props to MS for being successful against the big juggernauts of nintendo and sony.
    I mean you cheer when its a pro sony article. Just my 2 cents sorry if they offend.

  • Guts5

    Posted May 15, 2008 1:09 pm PT

    darkride66 Egg99 said "The ONE concrete thing that Microsoft continually avoids every time they release sales figures is how many consoles are actually "sold" because gamers have been forced to go out and buy another one"
    Or, if they have indeed been busted selling refurb consoles as part of bundles, as broke this morning, are they counting those sales twice? Once when it was first sold, again when it's refurbed, cleaned up and slapped back into a European bundle after it RRODs?
    "

    Well, there never will be a worldwide dominance to the 360 because Asia is biased and doesn't like American "style" games like Halo 3 and GTA IV.

    That being said, you need not worry. When Halo sold over 8 million copies in North America over the last 12 months, this was last month. You know they weren't counting refurbs. It's simply math.... kinda like that 50 million total game sold stat you liked to provide darkrider66 for the PS3, which broke down to barely 4 game bought per console. So, yeah it's safe to say those are acutual consoles sold and none of the garbage darkride is trying to imply.

  • kos1085

    Posted May 15, 2008 1:05 pm PT

    In response to many of the PS3 and XBOX360 extremist posting on here, overall every system has its pros and cons. Dont get on here blasting on how good your favorite system is and how bad others are when all of the systems have downfalls. Once you realize that, then you are on your way to becoming a hardcore gamer. And i forgot in my previous post to say good job microsoft and keep it up.

  • darkride66 posted May 15, 2008 12:53 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. login to show)

    darkride66

    Posted May 15, 2008 12:53 pm PT (hide)

    Egg99 said "The ONE concrete thing that Microsoft continually avoids every time they release sales figures is how many consoles are actually "sold" because gamers have been forced to go out and buy another one"
    Or, if they have indeed been busted selling refurb consoles as part of bundles, as broke this morning, are they counting those sales twice? Once when it was first sold, again when it's refurbed, cleaned up and slapped back into a European bundle after it RRODs?

  • Egg99

    Posted May 15, 2008 12:50 pm PT

    The ONE concrete thing that Microsoft continually avoids every time they release sales figures is how many consoles are actually "sold" because gamers have been forced to go out and buy another one or send theirs in for refurbishing/replacement due to faulty hardware.

    Yes, their global install base is large. It's also extremely misleading. Such is the way of major corporations, I guess.

  • Monstromo

    Posted May 15, 2008 12:46 pm PT

    I think that the 360 just has better game performance than the PS3 which is attributed its being out the door first. The best games on the PS3 is Ratchet and Clank and Uncharted. Those games are best being written specifically for the PS3. PS3 won't hit 10 million until the next wave of games come out written specifically for it.

    But before you smack me as a fanboy. I have all three boxes. The Wii has a weak line up, but is propped up by Nintendo exclusives. Also, I love my PS3 and it is clearly a top notch product. I just wish that games would be written for it sooner. But I think it will just take a little while longer.

    Kudos to MS 360 for hitting 10 million give or take a million.

  • Nineball2112 posted May 15, 2008 12:40 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. login to show)

    Nineball2112

    Posted May 15, 2008 12:40 pm PT (hide)

    @ Darkride66... yep, you're right. Here's a link to what you were talking about...

    http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=27711

  • akiwak

    Posted May 15, 2008 12:29 pm PT

    @PSWi60 I know of the extreme in 2 of my friends. So it did happen even some employees of Gamestop telling me how they survived thru the process by having multiple 360 consoles.

  • kos1085

    Posted May 15, 2008 11:55 am PT

    @PSWi60. Yeah that is a bit extreme and I thought no one would stupid enough to do that but then I came across someone who had actually bought a second one just because the other one was in the shop. Cant lie, if it happened to me while I was playing GTA, mass effect, or Halo 3, I would have bought another one like I had to when my big PS2 started having disk reading errors. And the thought of trading in the pro for an elite has crossed my mind (settled for bigger hard drive instead).

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