Earlier this week we found out that Sony’s PlayStation 4 had passed the 7 million sales mark, and it looks like that figure has helped to secure a third month in which sales are ahead of Microsoft’s Xbox One. Microsoft has revealed that 311,000 Xbox Ones were sold in the US during March, and also confirmed that 5 million Xbox Ones have been shipped to retailers, not sold. Apparently the gap in sales between the two new gen consoles for March was 60,000, meaning the PS4 sold approximately 370,000 in the US.
Sony have yet to officially announce PS4 figures for March, but tweeted a thank you message via the PlayStation Twitter.
Breaking news: NPD confirms PS4 #1 in console sales for March – thank you! @LuckyLongworth @yosp pic.twitter.com/pEQCLOQtyG
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) April 17, 2014
In terms of sales percentages hardware sales were up by 78% year on year, while software sales as a whole were down 28%.The top ten selling games for March were:
1. Titanfall
2. InFamous: Second Son
3. South Park: The Stick Of Truth
4. Call Of Duty: Ghosts
5. Dark Souls II
6. Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
7. NBA 2K14
8. Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD
9. The LEGO Movie Videogame
10.Minecraft
Source: GamesIndustry.biz, Xbox Wire, Twitter, NeoGAF
JR.
Didn’t expect this. Even Titanfall (the greatest game of our time), a Titanfall bundle, 25 Titanfall articles a day on IGN and a huge price cut couldn’t topple the PS4. 5 million units shipped is still a pretty good number for MS all things considered. Though I do wish they would release the figures for actual units sold (like Sony do) and not units shipped to make it sound better.
yiddo
It’s 5 million shipped to retailers, whereas Sony have sold 7 million to customers. God knows how many the X1 has sold to customers, but it isn’t 5 million.
The gap is starting to get pretty damn huge.
yiddo
Just realised that’s what you kind of implied :/ my bad.
Foxhound_Solid
Go Sony! :-)
Getting the sales it deserves, crackalacking console!
Germanos
This are really great times for a PlayStation fan :D Go SONY !
ron_mcphatty
I’m surprised Ground Zeroes is up there on the sales chart after all the criticism about price.
BullyBurton
5 million sold to retail means bugger all bless them.
I’d be a little miffed (having paid over 400) but could forgive MS if they take one on the chin and drop XB1 to £300 and pump money into exclusives. I rather liked the days where I would sit in my gaming chair and ask “should I play Uncharted or am I in the mood for Halo”. But right now there is little incentive to shout “Xbox On” 50 times when my PS4 has all I want to play. MS couldn’t even hang on to Trials.
It is time for dark and dirty tactics, a price cut to the point where an impulse purchase is most likely and a focus on games that can only be played on XB1 where 720p doesn’t matter as it is the only way to play a must have title.
Xbox has given me some great gaming moments and I hate to see MS throwing it all away through arrogance and a laid back attitude.
yiddo
They would not do such a huge pricecut. They are still selling and making profit, just not selling as well as their main competitor. This isn’t a pissing contest to please the fanboys on which console will ‘win’. Both companies aim is to make masses of profit.
At the moment, they are making a profit on every X1 sold (I believe). A price cut like that and they will be selling at a huge loss, against something which is selling like hotcakes and which is more powerful. Word of mouth spreads, and alot of people will now be getting PS4’s purely because their friends or members of family have one.
MS are best riding it out for a while, and still making profit, instead of being concerned on whether or not they can win the ‘war’.
Scythegpd
Thing is MS are apparently only making marginal profit at $500. Not to mention the game bundles will need to be paid for (Forza not so much of an issue as it’s in house, TF they’ll need to pay EA for “giving” the game away with the console) so while the hardware may turn a minor profit that doesn’t mean the packages do.
And even with bundles and price cuts it’s still not outselling the PS4 … in the month of their biggest exclusive this year. It’ll only be so long before retailers stop taking the price-cut knock and expect MS to officially drop the price, bang there goes their profit.
And that’s not even taking into account their monstrous marketing budget which WILL have overshadowed any console generated profit they may have made.
yiddo
Good points. With some Microsoft board members wanting to sell off the Xbox division, I bet they are wary of an official price drop. That would mean them being even more in the red, and the Xbox division itself has been a huge, HUGE, money sink for MS in the last few years.
Microsoft are rich as fuck, as we all know, but they are a smart business, and if a division is bleeding like crazy, it’s best to cut it off and be done with it.
Really worrying times for Xbox.
Scythegpd
Zactly.
The new head honcho of MS was historically open to the idea of getting rid of the hardware division (which includes the xbox)
MS are used to working in monopoly, hence why windows and office are their big money spinners. However even windows’ popularity is falling so office is their saving grace. They’re not used to competing so their non office/ow division have been bleeding money for ages (zune, tablet, console etc). Even before the XB1 some investors were going “Why the fuck are we wasting money on this shit without any returns AND losing track in the core business as well? Drop the dead weight and focus on what made us rich in the first place”. The current gen performance isn’t going to be changing their minds irrelevant of corporate spin.
Sony pretty much rely on consoles and need the PS, MS don’t, so very interesting next year or 2.
JR.
I don’t know what the situation is in other parts of the world but retailers in the UK appear to be getting a bit desperate now. I’ve seen a number of big retailers drop the price of the Titanfall bundle to £330 in the last week or two. Demand just isn’t there and a price drop alone isn’t going to cut it. They needed a system seller and it doesn’t look like Titanfall is fit for the job.
Scythegpd
Lol there’s some forums that are going into complete meltdown over this news. It’s pretty hilarious.
Good job Sony, who’d have thought making a gaming machine where games are the primary focus would be a successful strategy! Thanks for saving this generation.
Temascos
That’s really impressive for Sony and not what I was expecting at all. Titanfall and I:SS obviously did well and hopefully we will see more from Respawn and Sucker Punch in the future. Vita needs love :(
I just hope Sony doesn’t get complacent in all this and constantly improves the system software and the game line up, no doubt they have the lead but they could lose it if they’re not careful. Or at least not get as much out of it as they should do.
E3 is gonna be an exciting time no doubt, everyone will be pulling their punches!
hol
Impressive stuff from Sony, especially when supply is still limited!
That said, in some quarters, certain fans are saying the NPD figures aren’t true? Poor deluded fools.
Scythegpd
One of the Polygon guys was claiming that on twitter.
Then when he was called out on it tried to backtrack and claimed he was just talking about software sales (which exclude downloads)
pitbullmern
Great news for Sony but I wish Microsoft would stop being pigheaded and sell an Xbone without kinect at a lower price. I never had kinect for 360 and don’t want it now to be honest and I’m not the only one with this thought.
Mick939
I bought an xbox one, the kinect is all but irrelavant, it doesnt even seem to log me in properly like my ps4 cam, also on games such as dead rising the voice commands rarely work (after tuning it many times) i found the voice commands on tomb raider ps4 worked really well though (ive not tried it on xbox one).
It would have made much more sense to sell seperatly, from what i hear the ps cam is in short supply in us and possibly over hear so it clearly worked.
Vandix
About the units sold, yesterday it was on the radio news, over here in the Netherlands.
It’s 7 million PS4s and 4 million Xbox Ones sold. That’s quite some difference.