According to NPD numbers published by Microsoft, 908,000 Xbox One consoles were sold in the United States in December. Microsoft had previously reported that its new console had sold 1 million units in its first day of availability globally, and 3 million through the end of 2013.
The console, which launched November 22nd, has seen lower aggregate sales than its rival, the Playstation 4. By year’s end, Playstation’s new console had sold 4.2 million units to Microsoft’s 3 million sum. However, the Playstation did come to the market slightly before Microsoft’s device, giving it an edge.
There is a war of numbers at play here: Both Sony and Microsoft want to shout the loudest about their sales, implicitly telling gamers that they are winning, and as such will warrant more developer attention and therefore sport a healthier platform in the end.
You can get pretty far into the weeds on the matter. As TechCrunch reported when Microsoft announced the 1 million figure:
Sony’s PlayStation 4 also sold over 1 million units in 24 hours when it launched around a week ago. So far, the two console giants are neck and neck. However, there’s just one little detail Microsoft fails to mention in its PR: The Xbox One launched in a total of 13 countries, 11 more than the PlayStation 4.
As a final carrot to all of this, Microsoft sold 643,000 of its now dated Xbox 360 console in the month as well, meaning it sold north of 1.5 million consoles in the month in the country. Given the rising importance of the living room for digital platform companies as they pursue cross-device and interest services, you could call that number a win.
Sony for now retains that global sales lead. It will be interesting to see who leads come mid-year.
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