As at 25 Jan 09, XBox360 sold 27.9 million worldwide while PS3 sold 19.9 million units.

The figures seemed to suggest that Xbox360 is a much more popular and successful console than PS3. Is this the truth or a myth? Let's investigate.

The following figures were extracted from vgchartz.com (as at 25 Jan 09)

PS3 XBox360
Grand Theft Auto IV 5.34 mil 6.74 mil
Call of Duty 4 3.97 mil 6.98 mil
Assassin Creed 3.29 mil 4.48 mil
Guitar Heroes III 1.86 mil 3.96 mil
Need for Speed Prostreet 1.54 mil 1.87 mil
Fallout 3 1.17 mil 1.93 mil
Devil May Cry 4 1.30 mil 1.19 mil
Far Cry 2 0.82 mil 1.24 mil
Burnout Paradise 0.88 mil 0.93 mil

Since XBox360 has sold more console, it is not surprising that it sold more games than PS3. But when one takes into account XBox360 larger user base, one should expect XBox360 to sell much more games than the numbers shown above. Nevertheless for games developers, its the absolute number of games sold that counts.

Another way of looking at the numbers is to consider how many each game sold as a percentage of console user base:
PS3 XBox360 % of PS3 user % of XBox360 user
Grand Theft Auto IV 5.34 mil 6.74 mil 26.8 24.2
Call of Duty 4 3.97 mil 6.98 mil 19.9 25.0
Assassin Creed 3.29 mil 4.48 mil 16.5 16.1
Guitar Heroes III 1.86 mil 3.96 mil 9.3 14.2
Need for Speed Prostreet 1.54 mil 1.87 mil 7.7 6.7
Fallout 3 1.17 mil 1.93 mil 5.9 6.9
Devil May Cry 4 1.30 mil 1.19 mil 6.5 4.3
Far Cry 2 0.82 mil 1.24 mil 4.1 4.4
Burnout Paradise 0.88 mil 0.93 mil 4.4 3.3

From the sample selected, about half of the time there is no material difference between either console. However for titles like FPS (e.g. COD4), XBox360 has commanded a clear lead over its rival. This could be due to Microsoft strength in supporting a seamless multiplayer experience.