Well, I for one never saw this coming. The PlayStation 4 continues to rule the roost in terms of consoles sold in the America, followed by the Xbox One, in quite a strong showing for the games industry’s hardware sales compared to last year, albeit with slower software sales.
While we don’t know the PS4’s actual sales figures, with Sony seeming to focus on the milestones rather than the monthly tally, and Nintendo have remained similarly tight-lipped, Microsoft have been fairly forthcoming with their figures. The Xbox One sold 115,000 console in the U.S. last month, while the Xbox 360 added 71,000 to its own sales figures.
Microsoft were also happy to tout 2.6 million games sold, 447,000 of which were for the Xbox One, to take 53% of the software sales last month. Additionally, the Xbox One’s sales mean that it has sold 76% more units than the Xbox 360 did during its first six months, as NPD analyst Liam Callahan revealed that “sales of PS4 and Xbox One hardware have more than doubled the combined sales of PS3 and 360 hardware through their first six months of sales.”
Yes, that does mean that the PlayStation 4 is outpacing the PlayStation 3 at an even faster rate, but this doesn’t really clue us in to any solid numbers. Additionally, while Sony revealed that inFamous: Second Son was the best selling game of the PS4/XBO/Wii U generation, a lack of major new exclusive releases meant that the cross-generational Titanfall and LEGO franchises could dominate the monthly software sales:
- Titanfall (Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC)
- Call of Duty: Ghosts (Xbox 360, PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Wii U, PC)
- NBA 2K14 (Xbox 360, PS4, PS3, Xbox One, PC)
- Minecraft (Xbox 360)
- LEGO: The Hobbit (Xbox 360, PS3, Xbox One, PS4, 3DS, Wii U, Vita)
- The LEGO Movie Videogame (Xbox 360, 3DS, PS3, Wii U, Xbox One, PS4, Vita)
- LEGO Marvel Super Heroes (Xbox 360, PS3, DS, 3DS, PS4, Wii U, Xbox One, Vita, PC)
- The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (PS4, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, 3DS)
- Grand Theft Auto V (360, PS3)
- Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (Xbox 360, PS3, PS4, Xbox One, Wii U, PC)
April was a fairly quiet month for new releases, so expect May to pick up the pace, with the likes of Wolfenstein and Watch Dogs set to land in the next couple of weeks. The future for console sales is a little less certain, but May likely won’t hold many surprises. It’s in June that we’ll see the Kinect-less Xbox One released, as well as a potential boost in sales as E3 reveals more on the various consoles’ upcoming games.
Source: Venture Beat, Xbox Wire via NeoGAF
Danlord
Last few years of Xbox 360 sales in NPD charts for reference of the Xbox One sales in NPD
April 2010 – 185K
April 2011 – 297K
April 2012 – 236K
April 2013 – 130K
The first month of Xbox One in the NPD for April has been the worse compared to the Xbox 360 (until now obviously). The announcement of the Kinect-less Xbox One SKU was brought forward from E3, they were saving that from E3 but they are definitely expecting terrible numbers this month too, so within next NPD the PR can spin “Gamers were waiting for the choice of an Xbox One without the Kinect at better value” type of spiel, to justify their perhaps low sales. Just look at the date of when the new SKU is releasing, and the date for E3 :P They’re in panic mode.
The PS4 has sold near 2:1 ratio of the Xbox One, so around 200k estimated/rumoured, although nothing concrete. Numbers look good for Sony, I bet they’re waiting for E3 to announce “9 million PS4’s sold worldwide” megaton at E3, it deserves to be successful it didn’t try to pull any crap and it was designed for games, Beast Souls and more at E3 will be incredible. I also hope they use that PlayStation Announcement on the PS4 for a livestream of E3 through the PS4, instead of me messing around with 4 different websites hoping one connects
Stefan L
Very difficult to compare figures like that when the PS4 and XBO are both priced higher and have much less extensive catalogues than their predecessors. The best comparison is to the same point in the life cycle during last gen, where both XBO and PS4 are easily outpacing the past.
Kamokazi-UK
Doesn’t Microsoft only give numbers sold to stores rather than actual number bought by consumers?
justerthought
It’s going to be really hard for MS to get back into the game because every month they are falling further and further behind. PS4 would have to do something really stupid to let them back now. The drop in software sales is expected. Players are upgrading to PS4 and saving their money for the flood of AAA PS4 games that will come in the near future. Even if they still have the PS3, they are not buying games for it unless it’s a must have like GTAV or The Last Of Us.
Sony is playing the game perfectly. They have a power console in place and are keeping players sweet with free AAA PS3 games on PSN Plus while they prepare the AAA PS4 games. Sony is successfully growing the PS4 user base with players hungry for the AAA games. The indie games are just padding to satisfy short term need. MS don’t stand a chance with a lame games machine that has removed kinect to mimic PS4. It has lost the thing it was designed to do well. The XB1 is now laid bare and will stand toe to toe with PS4 in a shoot out based on gaming prowess. PS4 will blast it away.
The MS vision has proved to be deeply flawed. Even now they are still insisting that Kinect is the future and that in 5 years time all PC’s will be voice operated. That is not going to happen because people don’t want it. Using a computer is a personal activity (personal computer), we are not going to be shouting out everything thing you are doing so that everyone can hear. It’s called privacy. Something MS have forgotten about when designing the kinect spycam.
Amphlett
That photo where the PS4 is laid on top of the Xbox One, it just reinforce the image I have of the Xbox One looking like 1980’s Betamax recorder.
DividSmythe
Yes it does look like a Batamax recorder but maybe the idea is send out an ugly version at first and when we sell a prettier version. A lot of people might trade in their Xbones for the new one this giving them greater sales. I know I highly likely will trade that ugly box in. I’ll hopefully keep my Ps4 all cycle unless they release a TV pass through, prettier version.
gamerbuff
Nobody talking about the 5:1 sales advantage the PS4 is seeing in Europe, instead focusing on the 2:1 lead in the us.
Amphlett
You are. ;-)
bunimomike
It’s an NPD article and I think they only concentrate on sales over the pond.
MrYd
MS aren’t going to be saying anything about sales for May, are they? What were they thinking when they announced the cheaper, Kinect-less version a month in advance?
If that (as everyone seems to expect) almost completely wipes out any sales in May, they could be in even more trouble. They’ll get some of the May sales in June. But what happens when people see “XBox One sales in May plummet to just 7 consoles sold”? Some people will still buy them, sure. But a lot will just go and buy a PS4 instead.
Any gap in sales between the two stands a good chance of just growing. Your friends have one console, so you buy the same. Games start to appear only on one console, so people start to drift towards that. And once that happens, the gap gets bigger and more games abandon it and people have more friends to influence their decision.
Of course, the PS3 was behind for a long time and still managed to creep ahead in the end. Does that mean the PS4 could still end up behind? Or does that mean those first few million 360 sales were just people who would have bought a PS3 if it was available in that first year? Did that headstart Sony gave MS really hurt them? Did people only buy the 360 because (a) it was the only option, and (b) their friends had them because it was the only option?
blarty
They thought, rightly, that by making a Kinect-less SKU and announcing it now that it would take the focus off everyone spending their E3 predictions having ‘What will MS do about Microsoft/PS4 lead’ being the number one talking point for their keynote.
Now that issue is dealt with, for now, they can focus on the games at E3.
This may also be a trend going forward for MS, now that Spencer is in charge rather than Mattrick, he all too often stood at the front with a new box and stood there gleefully – if Spencer brings it back on to the main focus being games then fair play.
colmshan1990
Also, they will be able to show a massive increase in sales for June after E3.
It’s not like people who were going to buy an Xbox One in May but waited because a cheaper version was coming in June will suddenly not be interested in Xbox One when the cheap model is released with all the shiny new announcements made at E3 inciting further interest.
Then come the headlines: Xbox One sales up 300% on the previous month after strong E3 and price cut!
Starman
Last month people moaned because MS didn’t give specific numbers & Sony did. This month its the other way round but nobody seems bothered which is odd.
TSBonyman
I might be wrong but i think the onus is probably more on MS to reveal figures as they are lagging behind. I mean isn’t it enough to know that PS4 is leading by a huge gap, without having to know by exactly how many units? ;-)
Starman
Indeed but if we don’t know both consoles sales we don’t know what the gap is.
bunimomike
Transparency, fella. Where is it, eh? Be nice to actually know what’s happening regionally and globally. Perhaps one day. :-\
TSBonyman
Fair enough, but i think those figures will be more interesting to see when both consoles are available in all regions.
yiddo
The gap is only going to grow it seems.
blast71
Bit like my belly then ;)