This month the gaming world will encounter three of the most exciting weeks possible for a home console. Things kick off on Friday when Sony releases the PlayStation 4 to retailers in North America. The following week, on Nov. 22, Microsoft will release its next-gen Xbox One console. The following week is “Black Friday,” which will see an onslaught of console-related excitement as people prepare for their holiday shopping. But where the holidays are concerned, Sony may have the edge, as a recent survey found that teens prefer PS4 when it comes to assembling their Christmas wish lists.
A survey of 500 teens created by Ebates.com and fielded by TNS found that teens would rather receive a PlayStation 4 than an Xbox One as a gift this holiday season. In fact, the survey revealed that adults felt the same way, with grown-ups ranking the PS4 as their electronic gift choice — after anything made by Apple — followed then by the Xbox One.
The survey found that a vast majority of teens (88%) between the ages of 12 and 17 years-old want an electronic gift this holiday season. No surprise there, right? One in five (20%) of them requested a PS4 vs. only 13% who said they want an Xbox One, showing without question in this survey that teens prefer PS4 over Microsoft’s competing console. The seven-percent difference in preference fell beyond the survey’s margin for error.
Among those who had a preference, teens ranked both the PS4 and Xbox One below an iPhone or iPad. That finding leads to several social observations, and analysts will surely start sounding the death knell for console gaming as a whole while mobile enthusiasts will give fist bumps. We’ll let them sort it all out; the PS4 vs. Xbox One conversation is more interesting to us.
The survey’s findings ranked the electronic gifts teens most want to receive this holiday in the following order:
- Apple iPhone (32%)
- Apple iPad (24%)
- PlayStation 4 (20%)
- Xbox One (13%)
- Apple iPod (13%)
Top gaming gift choices for teens vary by gender, with 28% of boys requesting a PS4 vs. only 12% of girls. Meanwhile, 22% of boys want an Xbox One vs. 5% of girls. As for other popular gaming gift choices, they were predictable but varied. Call of Duty: Ghosts was desired by 12% of teens vs. 18% of adults, Grand Theft Auto 5 was requested by 10% of teens vs. 24% of adults, and Pokemon X and Y was desired by 5% of teens and no adults. There’s all the proof you need that adults are smarter.
More proof: parents seem to have a good grip on what gifts will be popular with the teen set, as their predictions were aligned with the teens’ actual choices. More than half of adults (54 percent) ranked Apple devices including iPhone, iPad, or iPod as the top electronic gifts they think children under the age of 18 years old would most like to receive. Turns out those gut feelings were right. However, when it comes to PS4 vs. Xbox One, the survey very clearly showed that teens prefer PS4 this holiday season.
