These Charts Reveal Something Essential About Xbox Series X, PS5, Microsoft And Sony - Forbes

At this point, it’s all inside baseball.

Arguably, the next-gen console war kicked off at the Game Awards in December, when Microsoft’s Phil Spencer strode out on stage to reveal the Xbox Series X, form factor and all.

The PS5 got a big boost when Epic showed off Unreal Engine 5 with a demo running on Sony’s machine, but that was neither an actual game nor an actual Sony event.

It’s not that these sorts of early announcements and back-and-forth are irrelevant, because you just need to look at the what happened to the Xbox One at announce to see what they can do if mismanaged.

Let’s look at PS5 and Xbox Series X on a Google Trends chart:.

This chart is for the past 90 days in the US, which leaves out the Xbox Series X announcement and the only time Microsoft’s console has had more search volume than Sony’s—Sony could never really have a comparable data point, because the Series X name was news where everyone just assumed the PS5 would be called the PS5.

It is maintaining a sizable advantage in next-gen sales race, and is using that wiggle room to make its announcements when it’s good and ready: as the Unreal Engine 5 demo showed, the conversation can turn on a dime when even the smallest amount of new information shows up.

For example, we look at Game Pass and PlayStation Now, which are Microsoft and Sony’s somewhat-competing subscription services.

It’s possible that we’ll be looking at this chart in 5 years and saying: well, subscriptions are one of the most important parts of gaming, and at this point, it’s Microsoft’s game to lose.