Destiny sales: Xbox and PlayStation evenly split despite Sony’s exclusive advertising

In its first week on shelves, Destiny has sold more copies in the UK than any other new video game series in history.

 

According to official sales monitor Chart Track, Activision's new game has beat a record previously set by Ubisoft's Watch Dogs in May.

 

Activision will be cheered by the top-line figures, however Sony will not be pleased to hear that their exclusive advertising deal with Destiny has not resulted in a dominance of sales.

 

Destiny, a first-person shooter incorporating massive multiplayer online (MMO) elements, was marketed exclusively for PlayStation platforms, however opening week sales were evenly split between PlayStation and Xbox.

 

36 per cent of opening week sales came from Xbox One users and a further 14 per cent came from those using the Xbox 360. The PS4 was the most popular console for the game, accounting for 46 per cent of sales, yet only 3 per cent came from the PS3.

As they couldn’t advertise Destiny for their consoles, Microsoft were forced to think outside the (X)box in order to promote the game. The company set up destinyfragrance.com, advertising the game and the Xbox logo on…perfume. 

 

“Destiny is actually an epic new first-person shooter, available on Xbox”, it said.

 

“Thing is, we didn’t have permission to run adverts for the game. So we didn’t. Thanks for smelling that something was up. Now get the game and become a legend.”

 

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— Xbox UK (@xboxuk) September 5, 2014