Recently, Sony announced that the total PS4 sales had reached an overwhelming 18.5 million in just one year of sale with holiday sale touching a 4 million mark. But Microsoft has dealt a big blow to the Japanese console maker. According to the NPD Group, an industry tracking firm, the Microsoft console has outsold PS4 for the second month in row.
“Xbox One ended 2014 with an unprecedented holiday season,” reads an Xbox news release. “[It was] the best-selling console in the US in November and December. In fact, weekly average sales during these months outpaced Xbox 360 by 50 per cent at the same point in its lifecycle.”
The sale increase can be attributed to the fact that Xbox One was $50 cheaper than PS4 throughout the holiday season and continues to be priced at around $349.
NPD Group further states that for December, hardware ticked down 4 per cent from $1.37 billion to $1.31 billion, and software didn’t make up the difference. New physical games saw spending of $1.25 billion, which was down 2 per cent from $1.28 billion. The only area that saw an increase was game accessories, which includes interactive toys like Activision’s Skylanders and Nintendo’s Amiibos. That sector gained 8 per cent from $630.6 million to $681.2 million.
“Keep in mind that the results for December and 2014 as a whole show the console space is going through a period of two transitions,” NPD analyst Liam Callahan said in a statement. “One being a generational transition from seventh generation to eighth generation consoles and second, a format transition as console gamers become more comfortable with downloading games and what is being offered digitally.”
Software wise, Sledgehammer Games’ Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare topped the list for December 2014, followed by Grand Theft Auto V both of which were top selling on the Xbox One. The gamers are going for the discounted Xbox Ones
and spending the cash on the games.
Nintendo’s Wii U too had the best month of the year with its sales going up by 29 per cent for the year. Super Smash Bros was one of the factors leading to these numbers which garnered the sixth spot in the overall sales of the games in 2014.