How Well Are Xbox Games Selling On PlayStation? Here’s What The Data Says

We’ve seen a lot of debate amongst the gaming industry over the past year about whether Xbox is right to put its first-party games on PlayStation, but it’s undeniably a profitable decision in the short term for Microsoft’s gaming business.

But how well are those games selling on PS5 (and PS4)? Well, we’ve got data from the folks over at Alinea Analytics, along with a couple of infographics that reveal the difference between Steam sales and PlayStation for these games.

The highlighted games here are Sea Of Thieves and Grounded, both of which have been described as “big sellers and resulted in significant revenues for Xbox”, coming in at 1.8 million and 432.2k copies respectively on PlayStation.

Sea of Thieves, Rare’s co-op pirate romp that came to Xbox and PC in 2018 and hit PlayStation in April 2024, selling 1.8 million copies on PlayStation so far

Grounded, Obsidian’s co-op survival game that launched on Xbox and PC in 2020 and came to PlayStation in April 2024, selling 432.2K on PlayStation so far

While these might not seem like massive figures compared to the Steam sales, Alinea Analytics says that “Xbox is on track to make some major money on PlayStation consoles” with the likes of Forza, Halo, Gears and beyond.

If we look past just Sea of Thieves and Grounded, the firm advises that “more niche Xbox games” haven’t sold as well as those two on PS5 and PS4, but they’re still worth the effort for Microsoft. Here’s a look at three of them:

And here’s a bit of how the report sums it up:

Xbox’s strategic experiments with PlayStation ports, even seemingly commercially underperforming ones, are a calculated long-term play.

Xbox has just been testing the waters so far, refining its cross-platform strategy ahead of larger, more consequential releases. The inevitable launches of marquee IP like Gears of War or Halo on PlayStation were once unthinkable, but now they’re a certainty. While some corners of the internet argue that the move dilutes Xbox’s appeal, the long-term upside of Xbox as a third party is clear.

It’s worth noting that these are not official sales figures – they’re simply best estimates from Alinea Analytics – but we’re assuming they’re pretty on point. And to be honest, there’s nothing overly surprising to us.

It’s no shock to see Sea of Thieves leading the way (at least out of the games mentioned here), but with Forza Horizon 5 on the horizon for PS5, it’ll probably get overtaken very soon. Hopefully we’ll get some sales data for that one ASAP!