Why do some people still consider Sony to be the "Market leader"?

Sony is perceived as the Market Leader in Console Sales because Nintendo arguably isn’t selling consoles. The switch for many people is a handheld device and no more a console than your phone or iPad is. The switch only really plays Nintendo games which also only appeal to a specific audience. Where Playstation and Xbox can play pretty much any game across a multitude of genres. So to say Nintendo is the market leader with a limited scope seems a bit disingenuous to many.

So if you look at handheld devices Apple or Samsung is probably the leading handheld device manufacturer in revenue and sales.

If you look at it as sales and generated sales for all parties. Playstation probably generates more revenue then Nintendo. As Sony is 2nd right now just in revenue by itself and then you factor in how much they are generating for third parties and other partners it would dwarf what Nintendo is generating.

Sorry but it just seems the only way to consider Sony a market leader is to twist things around to fit that narrative. None of the common criteria makes Sony a market leader.

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But gaming is not just those 3.

Well that’s what Im trying to do here.

What do you consider the common criteria? Revenue and revenue generated on your platform would be the only criteria a business would care about in regards to market leader claims which is where the term market leader come from. it just means the percentage of hte market you own. The percentage of the market you own is determined by what is the total revenue available. Of that total revenue available how much is generated through Sony’s platform vs Microsoft’s Platform vs. Nintendo’s Platform.

There is no narrative twisting about it. Its just dollars and cents.

Just because Nintendo sells more plastic boxes doesn’t mean they generate more revenue. Revenue generation has always been an issue for Nintendo. ITs why the WII which sold a lot but ultimately failed when you look beyond console sales. As people weren’t buying games on it. They bought some first party games but not much actual revenue was generated in comparison to PC, Microsoft and Sony.

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It’s coming off this generation lol.

Well for decades it was simply the number of hardware sold. Then when Sony stopped selling the most people started trying to push revenue or users or something else. Sony is not the gaming leader in revenue and when the Activision merger comes through MS will be super close to Sony in revenue which will trigger people to find some other criteria to say Sony is the market leader.

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I would pushback on the for decades it was never about who sold the most hardware. Granted the further back you go revenue generated and revenue earned through the platform correlate closer as the ways to make money are reduced greatly so the convo isn’t as nuanced which may be what led to the perceived confusion here.

Secondly, I said revenue and revenue generated on the platform. Those two key metrics which specifically are what determines it. As Revenue is how much sony made. Revenue generated is how much Sony partners make through the platform. Meaning if you buy call of duty on PlayStation that 60 to 100 dollars in revenue generated on sony’s platform. As the sale can be directly attributed to sony for cultivating the ecosystem and creating the playerbase who is spending.

So when you add up how much sony makes and how much revenue is generated through the PlayStation platform it outweighs how much money would be made by their contemporaries right now. Which is why they would be the market leader.

As you seem to be hung up on who sells the most consoles. just selling the most consoles has nothing to do with who the market leader is. As console sales is only part of the equation as it factors into the revenue portion.

Market leader is solely determined by Total sales possible in a given market over a period of time divided by revenue and revenue generated by the platform. That percentage you get is the market share.

Nintendo’s not the market leader because when you do the math they just don’t generate enough revenue in comparison to the other platform holders.

Lastly, Tencent is not a platform holder which is why Sony is considered the market leader even though Tencent generates more money.

Its not a conspiracy its just math.

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Na just sounds like a lot if IFs and BUTs and moving goal posts to keep a Narrative of Sony as the Market Leader.

The Market has changed, gaming has changed and Sony seems stuck in an old business model. But even in that Business model they have not been the Market Leader since the Switch came out.

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the real market leader are cellphones

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Thank you for having the patience to write up the proper response to this thread. The thesis of the OP is embarrassing and reflects a bad look on the community because it’s desperately grasping to make Sony (and only Sony) disqualified to some regard.

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It’s because they are the leader for the “hardcore” gaming community that cares to discuss games. It doesn’t matter if the Wii trounced the other consoles in sales for example. “Casuals” aren’t real gamers, so COD, FIFA, Madden, Minecraft, Roblox, Candy Crush, etc… don’t count either.

Don’t always believe what people on the internet are saying.

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No one is disqualifying Sony, but the reality is they do not lead gaming in any real category so I find it odd some are grasping at straws and moving goal posts to keep pushing a narrative that they are " Market Leader" of anything.

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Yea much like the switch now people kept ignoring the Wii greatly outsold the PS3 but was disqualified for “reasons”

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But Playstation dwarves Xbox/Nintendo in DLC revenue in COD/Fifa/Madden/Fortnite/Warzone.

Funnily enough in regards of spending in Fortnite - according to the documents provided by Epic, despite being outsould 1:2.5, Fortnite revenue is split 1:1.7. So people on Xbox spent more in Foortnite.

And all in all, it is mainly due to PS4/Xbox One split anyway. When PS4 and Xbox One are gonna be left behind. it is gonna be more interesting.

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Also didn’t help that Fortnite was behind a pay wall on Xbox while PS4 was free to anyone.

You are basically pushing goal posts to push a narrative that they aren’t though? They are very clearly the market leader as a gaming console platform holder. They have the most users spending the most time and money on their platform versus Nintendo and Microsoft. It’s really that simple.

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Any way you slice it they have stopped being the top in the categories that were previously used to say they were market leaders. People are literally inventing categories to try and keep their narrative intact. You arent market leader anymore if people have to jump through hoops and twist logic to try and prove it.

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If you consider they make the most money out of any of the console manufacturers and generally sell the most third party games then you could make the argument they are “leaders”

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