It Sounds Like Xbox One Sales Have Reached At Least 5 Million Units

[UPDATE] Microsoft has since removed a line in this Xbox Wire blog post that mentioned "five million Xbox One gamers..." It now reads, "To date, millions of Xbox One gamers have created more than 500 million clips..." (emphasis added).

The original story is below.

Though it's still unconfirmed, it sure sounds like the Xbox One has now sold-through at least 5 million units since the console's launch in November 2013. This would be up from 3 million units sold through the end of the year, meaning Microsoft has shifted at least two million additional consoles so far in 2014.

Microsoft's announcement of 5 million Xbox One units sold was made quite quietly. In an Xbox Wire post detailing new Xbox One Upload Studio features, Microsoft said, "To date, five million Xbox One gamers have created more than 500 million clips…" (emphasis added).

In a statement to GameSpot, David Dennis of Xbox Platform Communications said, "The five million gamers referenced in the blog posting was related to the number of gamers that have used Upload and posted a video of their gameplay on Xbox One."

If five million gamers have used Upload on Xbox One, then it's likely that the console has sold through at least 5 million systems to date. However, it's also possible that someone with an Xbox Live account used Upload Studio on a friend or roommate's Xbox One, thereby inflating the 5 million figure beyond what it might actually be. At the same time, this potential inflation could be balanced out by the number of people who have never even used Upload Studio; as such, the real figure could even be above 5 million.

In terms of hard numbers, Microsoft announced in April that it had sold-in 5 million Xbox One units, but this figure only represented units sold to retailers and not necessarily sold through to consumers. Microsoft has not officially announced a new sales figure for the platform since. By comparison, Sony announced last week during Gamescom that it had sold more than 10 million PlayStation 4 units worldwide as of August 10. The PS4 sold 1 million units on launch day (the Xbox One did that, too), and 4.2 million systems by the end of 2013. That means so far in 2014, Sony has sold at least 5.8 million PS4s.

Microsoft has been open about being the current underdog in the home console race. Most recently, Xbox boss Phil Spencer acknowledged the challenge the Xbox One faces in the wake of strong PS4 sales, but said this generation is only just beginning.

Currently, the PS4 is available in substantially more markets than the Xbox One, at least until Microsoft's console comes to 29 new markets in September. In addition, the Xbox One launches in the potentially massive market of China next month. Sony has revealed plans to bring the PlayStation platform to China, but has not announced any launch details.