The PlayStation 5 was revealed earlier this year, and the company has been teasing features and hardware improvements that it intends to lord over its predecessor. From how PS5's SSD should make loading screens virtually nonexistent to the welcome addition of backward compatibility, it's no wonder that the PlayStation 5 is the most hotly-anticipated next-gen console out of the Big 3.
Out of the Big 3 of Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, consumer trends are quite telling. While the Nintendo Switch has performed well, even outselling the PS4 and PS4 Pro in sales in Japan, the other major competitor for Sony hasn't been as hot. Microsoft's Xbox One sales numbers tell a very different consumer story compared to Nintendo's, with sales worldwide of less than half the PS4.
A poll conducted by IGN appears to buck sales trends from the past financial year; while the Nintendo Switch is currently the clear leader in the console market by some margin, it looks like the PlayStation 5 is the most-anticipated next-gen console out of its immediate competition. 52.8% of the poll's participants voted that they were most keen for Sony's new product, with Microsoft and Google trailing the pack at 14.2% and 4.4% respectively. Nintendo, the current sales leader, fell into second place with 28.5% of polled individuals presumably being most excited for a potential new iteration of the Switch.
There are a number of reasons why Sony is currently leading the next-gen console race. Sony has always jostled with Nintendo for the crown when it comes to top-quality exclusives, but the incredible hype surrounding upcoming PlayStation exclusives like Persona 5 Royal and Death Stranding could likely have contributed to the excitement for what the company has coming up next. The bits of news teased by Sony about just how feature-rich the PlayStation 5 will be couldn't have hurt either — fast load times, unbeatable graphics, and backwards compatibility are arguably the keys to a modern consumer's heart in the console world.
While the poll has a sample size of 40,000 and is largely determinative of a portion of players who would invest in and purchase a next-gen console, the reasons why Sony would be pulling ahead in this race are logical and likely the result of how big the PS4 player base is and how hard the company has worked recently to build hype for the upcoming PlayStation 5. That being said, there's still well over half of this current financial year for Microsoft and Nintendo to make some big moves; who knows, Nintendo announcing its rumored next-gen Switch models could be an E3 move that changes everything alongside Microsoft's Xbox One successor.
Source: IGN