We already know that the PlayStation 4 has had a strong start to the year, landing in 5.3 million households around the world by early February, and then busting past the 6 million mark thanks to closing that month with the Japanese launch.
The latest NPD figures for the console sales in America confirm that the PlayStation 4 held top spot, but the big news is that the Xbox One was hot on its heels, when many are quick to dismiss the console out of hand. Microsoft have stated 258,000 XBO sales during February, alongside quite a strong 2.75 attach rate for games, with 772,000 XBO sold last month.
But Sony still hold the lead, and Geoff Keighley tweeted that the XBO sales are 10% behind the PS4 sales during the same period. Though Sony didn’t reveal any figures of their own, this points to around 286,000 PS4 sales.
Meanwhile, Nintendo revealed that Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze’s release helped them to increase Wii U sales year on year by around 25%, pointing to sales around the 80,000 mark from last year’s 64,000. Their software sales also improved, thanks to Donkey Kong’s 130,000 sales and the 3DS RPG Bravely Default pushing 200,000 sales, both via retail and digital channels. It helped them to beat the 9% drop in retail game sales.
Across the whole market, The Lego Movie Videogame was predictably the best of the newcomers, but couldn’t topple Call of Duty from the top spot. The top 10 list is as follows:
- Call of Duty: Ghosts (360, PS3, Xbox One, PS4, Wii U, PC)
- The Lego Movie Videogame (360, PS3, 3DS, Wii U, Xbox One, PS4, Vita)
- NBA 2K14 (360, PS4, PS3, Xbox One, PC)
- Thief (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
- Grand Theft Auto V (360, PS3)
- Battlefield 4 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3, PC)
- Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (360, PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Wii U, PC)
- Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (PS3, 360)
- Minecraft (360)
- Bravely Default (3DS)
While software sales were down 9%, the overall market was up 9%, thanks in no small part to the strength of hardware sales. This certainly lays a solid foundation for March’s sales figures to build on, with major games like Titanfall and inFamous: Second Son aiming to push console and game sales on to the next level.
tatoemonkey
what needs to be added to the title there is Xbox one one catches up – because its now on sale!
Old School
Still behind this month? That’s bad, this is Titanfall month, this is the one month the Xbox should have been on top. I’m surprised by this.
tonyyeb
These are February’s numbers. March will most likely show any ‘Titanfall effect’ better in my opinion.
blarty
But the March figures will also show the Infamous effect as well…..
Compliments on the avatar choice, by the way….
Tedbaker
Not surprised. The XboxOne is still poor value and poor specs, and despite what Microsoft claim, the Xbox one isn’t the best place to play titanfall, the PC is.
Me I couldn’t give a crap about titanfall, its vastly overhyped and been done before, better..
tonyyeb
If the Xbox One is catching up, wouldn’t it need to sell more than the PS4? Really isn’t it falling further behind?
double-o-dave
Thats what I thought but I think it means for the month of February the Xbox sales are closer to PS4 sales in comparison to previous months. In whole though, like you say, this can only mean the gap is widening.
Geeby
Exactly! If it’s still being outsold how can it be catching up? Very misleading!
Stefan L
Catching up to the pace of PS4 sales is what I meant, but yes, the market share gap is widening… but an astonishing 30k consoles. ;)
TSBonyman
Nice to see them regaining some ground on their home turf.
Geeby
Ermm..
Surely if the PS4 outsold the Xbox One again then Sony have increased the margin..? Only slightly obviously, but saying the Xbox One is catching up is a strange way of putting it.
Microsoft’s sales have increased yes, but they’re still being outpaced by Sony in the US – the console with far less units available.
Bizarre way to record the sales. Should be “PS4 top in the USA, but Xbox not far behind”.
MrYd
So Sony are still ahead. Even in the US. Despite PS4 stock still being limited.
And we haven’t really got any big exclusive games on either console yet. The ones that might sell more consoles.
MS might get a boost from Titanfall. Although reaction to that seems a bit mixed. It’s done that Metacritic thing where it’s at 86% from critic reviews, and only a 6.2 user score. Usually means it’s not too bad, but it’s just not for everyone. And those critic reviews are all from before the game launched, which is stupid for an online only game. It’s probably full of network issues and people being muppets by now. ;)
And the PS4 has Infamous out soon. Which could give it a boost there. And weren’t Sony claiming the PS4 will get over the initial lack of stock sometime in March or April?
I’m going to guess at an increase in sales for both consoles over the next month, especially for MS in the US. And then Sony starting to increase their lead even more after that.
Starman
The metacritic reviews are comical. Half the people giving 0/10 have given Killzone 10/10, coincidence I’m sure! User reviews on metacritic are just fanboy wars.
double-o-dave
I had a browse through these and it does appear like both sides are trying their best to raise or lower the scores. I tend to find the very few reviews around the 7 mark to read better and seem far more realistic. Looks like people find the game fun but for that many 10s and vice versa, that many low-end scores 1s, 2s & 3s it is ridiculous.
MrYd
Not entirely. As with any reviews (user or critic reviews), you’ve got to use your own judgement as well. Even more so with those metacritic user reviews.
But getting a user score that low, and a critic score of 86% suggests it’s maybe not, in fact, that great a game. I’m sure it’s lots of fun if you like that sort of thing though. Possibly even an above average game.
And Killzone has a 73% critic and 7.0 user score there. So presumably, if the metacritic user reviews are “just fanboy wars”, Killzone is actually better than a 7.0? Is that how it works? The scores from the other console fans drag the “real” score down?
Really, anything above 50% suggests a game is “above average” anyway, and probably worth a go if you like that sort of thing. I’ve had hours and hours of fun with obscure JRPGs scoring far lower from critics.
Starman
@yd at launch Killzone had a much lower user score, its balanced out now to a more realistic score. Same for Knack, Ryse and most of the exclusives.
Mick939
I was never a huge xbox person, so far ive sold the 360 and given the ONE a miss, but id never give killzone a 10/10 (Shadow fall i mean, ive loved the others)
On the other hand if i was given a choice between Killzone: Shadowfall and Titanfall id go with the former. I hate the look/idea/point of titanfall, no single player (im not a huge multiplayer guy) the online sounds quite limited, if Battlefield with all its vehicles etc can manage 64 player why cant an online only titanfall?
I am aware most/all battlefields effort was put into online.
Starman
There’s some miserable fuckers on here today!
Stefan L
You can’t really take metacritic’s user scores too seriously, because there’s little to no moderation, the scores are far too regularly poloarised at either end of the scale to inflate or reduce that average score and on top of this, there’s no actual way to tell if the person awarding that score owns or has played the game. At least with Amazon’s user ratings, you can see if a person has bought it before reviewing.
Even with reviews of Titanfall that were based of pre-release access and servers, you can hopefully trust that most reviewers have played it for a good length of time, seen what the game has to offer and then tried to apply critical thought as to what the game’s strengths and weaknesses were.
A low score at the end of that doesn’t mean a game can’t be enjoyable or fun, let alone for your own personal preferences.
Speaking of early access, it does seem that the Azure servers are coping quite well with the added load of Titanfall players. I think there was a brief hiccup for PC and XBO, but I encountered no problems getting connected. In fact, there was that PSN problem the other day, and Titanfall isn’t even out on PS4! :P
Starman
Good to see the X1 narrowing the gap, and that’s before Titanfall releases. I got mine last night, so you can add at least 1 sale due to Titanfall!
bunimomike
Best of luck with it, fella. Hope you enjoy the game. :-)
Starman
Thanks, I patiently waited for there to be something I really wanted on it and also to get my 360 backlog down. Both of those are achieved!
Tedbaker
NPD is a pointless measure. Everyone knows ps4 outselling the xbone 4:1 at retail. Massaged regional numbers are spin and paid damage control.
Starman
Calm down mate. Its only a game. (console)
bunimomike
NPD isn’t completely pointless (in my honest opinion) but it definitely paints only part of the overall picture. What gets my goat is how worked-up people tend to get and when Americans say “oh, it’s only about NPD as anything outside of America doesn’t count (read: is irrelevant) anyway” which is so exceptionally narrow-minded and, quite frankly, dumb.
SLUMMO316
Go be a dickhead fanboy somewhere else
double-o-dave
Easy tiger.
camdaz
Glad to see both consoles selling well, especially the PS4.
Broonba
Aye exactly. Both consoles doing well can only be good for the industry.
zillah
glad sony are still going strong, although i have no idea where anyone is getting their consoles from. i haven’t seen one in a store since the launch. plenty of xboxes sitting around though, but then again i’m in germany and not the US and apparently the germans aren’t too keen on the xbox if the internets can be believed.
JR.
2.5 million
JR.
…let’s not kid ourselves.