72% of US next-gen pre-order customers chose PS5
29% of the respondents to a VGM study said they tried to pre-order a next-gen console but were not able to do so
A study from market research company VGM indicated that US players who have pre-ordered a next-gen console have predominantly gone for the disc edition of the PlayStation 5.
The study was conducted from September 23 to 25, 2020, using a sample of 511 US-based respondents, representative of the US general gaming population.
Among them, 15% said they managed to successfully pre-order a next generation console. Within this group, 72% went for the disc edition of the PS5, 30% went for the Xbox Series X, 10% for the PS5 digital edition and 8% for the Xbox Series S.
29% of the respondents said they attempted to pre-order a next-gen console but were not able to do so. Among them, 58% were trying to pre-purchase a PS5 disc edition, 40% an Xbox Series X, 21% a digital edition of the PS5 and 11% an Xbox Series S.
The sample was also divided into three categories: casual gamers, midcore, and hardcore. In the latter segment, 28% said they preordered a next-gen console, while 42% said they were unsuccessful in their attempt to do so.
Looking at the next-gen game offering, 52% of the respondents who have pre-ordered a PS5 (or who intend to buy one by the end of 2020) said that Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales was the exclusive game that encouraged them to do so, followed by God of War: Ragnarok (42%) and Final Fantasy XVI (32%).
For the Xbox Series X and S, Halo Infinite was for 45% of the respondents who pre-ordered (or intend to do so by the end of the year) the exclusive game that motivated the purchase decision. It was followed by Fable at 26% and Forza Motorsport 8 with 24%.
Looking at non-exclusive titles, 45% of the respondents who have pre-ordered either of the upcoming consoles (or intend to do so by the end of 2020) said Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War was the title that motivated their decision, followed by Assassin's Creed: Valhalla at 31%.
The overall reasons for choosing a system over the other were not surprising. 45% of the interviewees who were leaning towards the PS5 said it was to be able to play its exclusive titles, while 42% of those interested in the Xbox Series said they wanted to be able to sign up for its subscription programs, such as Game Pass.
On a separate note, 63% of the respondents said they were unaware of the recent purchase of ZeniMax by Microsoft.