According to Oracle Data Engineer Michael Driscoll, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S scalpers in the United States have raked in $58 million in profits from the resale of next-gen consoles on eBay and StockX. Profits have more than doubled since Driscoll’s last analysis of the market in December.
The data engineer estimates that PS5 resales have generated $143 million in profits on eBay and StickX as of January 16. The figures add up to more than $43.2 million in profit for scalpers and $15.9 million for eBay, PayPal and StockX. In addition, Driscoll estimates that Xbox Series X|S resales generated $14.57 million in profit for scalpers and $10.4 million for eBay, PayPal and StockX during the same period.
Although sales data for the consoles has not been released, Driscoll estimates that 10 to 15% of all PS5 consoles and 15 to 20% of all Xbox Series X|S consoles have been resold in the US. Meanwhile, in the UK, a group of MPs has called for legislative changes that would prevent scalpers from reselling consoles for “vast profits.” Legislation already exists in the UK to regulate the resale market of tickets.
Sony stated that the release of the PS5 was the largest console launch in PlayStation history. Meanwhile, Microsoft has called the release of Xbox Series X|S “the most successful” launch in the company’s history. Both companies believe the demand for the consoles will exceed the supply in the first half of 2021
According to AMD CEO Lisa Lu, there will also be a limited supply of next-gen console chips in the near future. “So certainly, when I look at the semiconductor environment in 2020 it was very strong. So, we saw a strong revenue ramp in our business as well as across some of our peers,” she said.
“It’s fair to say that the overall demand exceeded our planning and as a result, we did have some supply constraints as we ended the year. Those were primarily, I would say, in the PC market, the low end of the PC market and in the gaming markets.
“That being said, I think we’re getting great support from our manufacturing partners. The industry does need to increase the overall capacity levels and so we do see some tightness through the first half of the year, but there is added capacity in the second half,” she added.
Source: VGC