PS5 vs Xbox Series X: Which Should You Buy?
Five years in, the hardware gap barely matters anymore. The real decision comes down to exclusives, subscriptions, and which ecosystem your existing library and friends are already in.
Both consoles launched the same month in November 2020, and both are still genuinely capable of everything current-gen gaming asks of them. The spec sheet still favours Xbox slightly on paper — but that gap rarely translates into a visible difference in the games you'll actually play.
Hardware: closer than the spec sheet suggests
| Spec | PS5 | Xbox Series X |
|---|---|---|
| GPU power | 10.28 TFLOPS | 12 TFLOPS |
| SSD speed | 5.5 GB/s | 2.4 GB/s |
| Target resolution | Native 4K, up to 120fps | Native 4K, up to 120fps |
| Controller | DualSense — haptics, adaptive triggers | Standard, longer battery life (AA option) |
| Backward compatibility | Most PS4 titles | 4 generations, incl. original Xbox |
Xbox's higher GPU number looks like a clear win on paper, but the PS5's much faster SSD narrows that gap in real-world loading times and streaming-heavy games. Most third-party titles — sports games, live-service shooters, big open-world releases — perform close enough to identically that you won't notice a difference picking one over the other.
Exclusives — this is where it actually gets decided
This used to be a simple two-sided argument. It isn't anymore. Microsoft has been publishing former Xbox-exclusive franchises — including Forza Horizon, Starfield, and upcoming Halo titles — on PS5 as well, quietly reducing what "Xbox exclusive" even means. PlayStation, meanwhile, has kept its major first-party output (Spider-Man, God of War, Horizon, Ghost of Yotei) locked to its own hardware.
Practically: if exclusive single-player games are a big part of why you buy a console, PS5 still has the deeper, more exclusive library. If most of what you play is cross-platform anyway — sports titles, shooters, this year's big open-world release — the exclusives argument barely applies to you.
The subscription factor
Xbox Game Pass is the strongest reason to consider Xbox independent of the hardware comparison. If you play a wide variety of games rather than a handful you'd buy outright, the subscription value is genuinely hard for PlayStation Plus to match — Sony's top tier doesn't include its biggest first-party games day one, while Game Pass titles are playable from launch.
🎮 Get the PS5 if...
Exclusive single-player games matter to you. You want the DualSense controller's haptic feedback. Most of your friends are already on PlayStation. You want the console with the larger current install base.
🎮 Get the Xbox Series X if...
You want Game Pass and play a wide variety of games. You have a back catalogue of older Xbox games you want to replay with performance improvements. You already have a gaming PC and mainly want console-exclusive access via Game Pass on PC too.
Frequently asked questions
Which console has more powerful hardware?
The Xbox Series X has the higher on-paper GPU spec (12 teraflops vs the PS5's 10.28), but the PS5's faster SSD (5.5GB/s vs 2.4GB/s) narrows the real-world gap significantly. In practice, most games look and perform very similarly on both.
Does Xbox still have exclusive games?
Fewer than before. Microsoft has been publishing former Xbox-only titles — including Forza Horizon, Starfield, and upcoming Halo games — on PS5 as well. PlayStation still has the deeper genuinely-exclusive library.
Is Xbox Game Pass worth it?
If you play a wide variety of games rather than a handful you'd buy outright, yes — it's the strongest reason to pick Xbox over PS5 for a lot of buyers, independent of the hardware comparison.
Check today's actual NZ prices
See live prices for both consoles across JB Hi-Fi, Noel Leeming and PB Tech before you decide.