It shouldn’t surprise anyone that sales data for October from NPD Group indicates the Sony PS4 outsells Xbox One yet again. The sales results mark the 12th straight month the PS4 vs Xbox One sales battle has been completely one-sided.
Though Microsoft’s Xbox One sales have outpaced PS4 sales for the past two weeks, Sony’s PS4 outsold the Xbox One in October during a month NPD said “was essentially flat” year over year.
The NPD data was specifically for the United States.
“These consoles have had a great start, as cumulative sales are currently over 70 percent higher than the combined first-year totals of Xbox 360 and PS3,” said NPD Group’s Liam Callahan.
While the PS4 outselling the Xbox One in October wasn’t entirely surprising, some aspects of NPD Group’s sales announcements were. For instance, in 2013 gamers held off on buying new hardware because the PS4 and Xbox One were very clearly on the horizon with a November 2013 release date. Now that those consoles are out, there was no such similar pressure to wait.
The caveat to that may have been Microsoft’s Xbox One price drop, which was announced in October but went into effect Nov. 2. If prospective Xbox One owners had been on the fence about buying, they likely would have waited until they could get the console for $50 less.
Sony was quick to acknowledge its PS4 vs Xbox One sales success in October. The company took to Twitter to say “The results are in, and PlayStation 4 is the top-selling console in the US for October! Thank you!”
Sony’s hands-down success with PS4 sales has been remarkable. The PS4 hasn’t simply outsold the Xbox One for 12 straight months, it’s sold at least 2 million more PS4 consoles to consumers than Microsoft has sold Xbox One consoles.
NPD sales for October also showed multiplatform games ruled the roost last month. The only first-party exclusive console game to crack NPD’s top 10 game sales for October was Sunset Overdrive, and even that was a technicality (you had to sort by SKU rather than title). Only Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. for 3DS was a platform-exclusive top-seller in October. (Speaking of which, have you entered our free contest to win Super Smash Bros. for 3DS?)
