Xbox One sales have hit at least 18m units

The exact number of Xbox Ones sold worldwide remains a mystery, but we now know that it is in excess of 18m units.

GameSpot reports that a reporter on ZDnet heard from sources that new stat gathering for Windows 10 revealed that 18m Xbox One consoles are ‘active’.

Microsoft later confirmed to ZDnet that ‘active’ refers to any machine that has been turned on and connected to the internet within the 28 prior days. Along with 18m Xbox Ones, the same period also saw 180m active Windows 10 PCs and 1m Windows 10 phones.

How many Xbox One owners can realistically be expected to turn on their machines every month is another question, but it’s certainly reasonable to assume that the actual sales number is quite a bit higher than 18m.

Microsoft hasn’t revealed any concrete sales data for its machine since announcing that it had shipped nearly 10m consoles back in November 2014. It then said late last year that it would no longer report Xbox One numbers.

Sony said last week that it has now sold 35.9m PS4s.