FAR outpacing Microsoft and its Xbox Series X/S consoles, Sony has shipped nearly five times more of its PlayStation 5 in the first quarter of this year, estimates sales tracker and analyst firm Niko Partners.

Last Tuesday, Sony revealed that it shipped 4.5 million units of its latest console during the three months that ended in March. The figure threw the lifetime total of the PlayStation 5 to 59.3 million.

For comparison, in April, Microsoft confirmed that there was a “significant drop” in hardware earnings, but stopped short of reporting the actual sales number for the Xbox Series X/S.

The salt in the wound also came from how both consoles launched in November 2020, with the PS5 suffering production and development issues due to the global chip shortage from the fallout of the pandemic. The initial sales of the Xbox that Microsoft enjoyed was quickly eclipsed in later years.

Exactly a year ago, Microsoft gaming CEO Phil Spencer admitted that the company “lost the console wars” in terms of sales figures due to the Xbox being ranked third to PlayStation and Nintendo for a very long time.