During this busy holiday season, both Sony’s PlayStation and Microsoft’s Xbox new video game consoles—the PlayStation 5 and the Series X, respectively—continue to sell out as soon as retailers fill their shelves. While the competition between the two consoles is stiff, so far the PS5 is outselling the Series X internationally in markets like Japan, and analysts are predicting the new PlayStation will outsell the new Xbox over time like it has in the past.
Ad spend could be a large reason why sales are falling in Sony’s favor. It’s difficult, of course, to directly link ad spend with sales at this early period, especially since both companies could be intentionally limiting their products in the marketplace, but based on ad spend alone, Sony’s PS5 has already soared over its rival.
Sony spent three times as much on ads as Microsoft did in the month ahead and immediately following their console launches—the PS5 launched on Nov. 12 and the Xbox Series X on November 10.
From October 19 to Nov. 15, Sony spent $15 million on ads for its PS5, while Microsoft spent about $5 million on ads for the Series X, according to a new report from advertising and sales intelligence platform MediaRadar, which analyzed ad spend across print, TV and digital.
The report found that Sony spent about $7.3 million up to the day of launch, while Microsoft spent about $3 million. Although competitor Nintendo did not release a new console, the report found that it too increased its ad spend. From Nov. 2 to Nov. 15, Nintendo’s ad spend was 138% higher than the previous two weeks.