Its been more than 20 years since Microsoft entered the console wars after introducing the original Xbox consoles back in 2001. Since the early 2000’s Microsoft has given us game systems like Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One along with Xbox Series X. While Microsoft became a fierce competitor against Sony during the 00’s and 10’s decades it seems like Xbox consoles has been unable to outsell PlayStation within the past two decades. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were released around the same time in late 2013 and its obvious that Sony crushed Microsoft in terms of competition. The Sony managed to sell over 117 million consoles worldwide while the Xbox One sold roughly around 58 million. Also, the PlayStation 5 has already surpassed the Xbox Series X in relation to sales and has already reached more than 54 million units. Both the PS5 along with the Xbox Series X were released back in late 2020 and Microsoft’s console has reached roughly over 27 million units worldwide. Its been clear for over a decade that Microsoft has been unable to keep match Sony’s popularity and success in the console wars and has often been considered number two for many years.

It seems like recently Microsoft has become number three behind Sony and Nintendo due to the amount of commercial success PlayStation 5 and the Switch console had within the past few years. There have been rumors since 2021 that the Xbox Series X might possibly be Microsoft’s final game console and that the tech giant had plans on moving to cloud based gaming. We have also learned within the past few months that Microsoft had signed a ten year deal with Nintendo to bring more Call of Duty games to Nintendo in the future. Microsoft also announced back in February 2024 that exclusive Xbox games would be making their way to PlayStation 5 sometime in this Spring. Microsoft doing business with companies like Sony and Nintendo has been regarded as a sign that Microsoft is no longer apart of the console wars. It seems like Sony and Nintendo are still going head to head in the console wars with one entity appealing towards young adults and the other making games that caters more towards children.