The Xbox One and PlayStation 4 have had an interesting rivalry. While both consoles have different things going for them, the PlayStation 4 has ruled the roost for most of this generation. Microsoft, on its part, turned it around in the second half of 2016 by bringing the Xbox One S and impressive exclusives into the mix.
While Sony celebrates PlayStation sales, Microsoft remains tight-lipped about the Xbox, providing only Xbox Live subscription numbers. However, the NPD Group has provided some curious insights into the world of consoles with some important sales figures.
In December, PlayStation emerged the winner by selling 1,568,000 consoles with 238,000 of those units being its latest PlayStation 4 Pro. Xbox came a close second selling 1,511,000 units across both the Xbox One and the relatively new Xbox One S. Xbox had a strong 10% year-on-year growth and although Microsoft won't confirm the numbers, they have admitted that consoles sales have experienced good growth.
Mike Nichols, Corporate Vice President, Xbox Marketing, Microsoft said in a statement:
"December was the biggest month ever for Xbox One sales in the U.S. and Xbox One was the only eighth generation console with year-over-year growth, according to NPD. In addition, Xbox One was the top-selling console over the second half of 2016, following the announcement of Xbox One S at E3."
"In November and December we saw Xbox Live engagement reach an all-time high of 3.9 billion hours, up 23 percent compared to 2015 driven by fan excitement for the greatest games lineup. Looking ahead, we expect 2017 to be a special year for gamers thanks to the upcoming launch of the most powerful console ever in Project Scorpio and a terrific portfolio of new games with Xbox Live support on Xbox One, Windows 10 or both."
With a new Xbox console expected to hit the market sometime this year, both companies have their work cut out for them.
Source: Windows Central
16 Comments - Add comment