November was the best month yet for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Wii U hardware sales, according to the NPD Group as reported by GI.biz. The November report showed hardware sales growth of 11 percent to $1.12 billion, which was the main driver of overall industry sales growing two percent to $2.47 billion.
“Growth was driven by console hardware, up 14 percent, which offset a 31 percent decline in portable hardware,” stated NPD’s Liam Callahan. “November 2015 marked the best month ever in total unit sales for eighth generation consoles (Xbox One, PS4, and Wii U), surpassing sales of December 2014 (now second-highest), and November 2014 (now third-highest).
Microsoft and Sony’s current consoles continued the trend of outpacing their predecessors at comparable points in their life cycles. “After 25 months, the combined sales for the PS4 and the XBO are 47 percent higher than the combined sales for 25 months of PS3 and Xbox 360 hardware sales,” added Callahan.
Microsoft announced back in October that it would no longer be reporting console shipment figures as often as it used to, choosing instead to focus on engagement numbers around Xbox Live usage. No reason for the move was provided, but it was very possibly due to the realization that reporting lower figures than Sony every single quarter the PS4 and Xbox One have been on the market has not cast Microsoft’s console in a favorable light.
The company was not shy about revealing its sales victory over Sony in October. April was the only other month in 2015 that the Xbox One outpaced the PS4.
This month it is once again Sony that is taking a public victory lap.
“PlayStation 4 is the top-selling console in the United States during the month of November according to NPD,” commented Eric Lempel, SVP Marketing, Sony Computer Entertainment America and Head of PlayStation Network Americas. “We have hit several key milestones over the last few weeks. Prior to Black Friday, we announced we have sold through more than 30.2 million PS4s to consumers around the world and that PS4 continues to exhibit the fastest growth in PlayStation hardware history. In addition, Black Friday sales were the strongest in PlayStation history demonstrating more people game now than ever before. We are also pleased to announce November was the biggest month ever for PlayStation Store indicating a strong digital marketplace complementing healthy retail sales.”
Source: GI.biz
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