Throughout December in the U.S., the Xbox One outsold the PlayStation 4, according to the NPD Group. Microsoft’s console sold over 908,000 units in December, according to the market research company’s data. Sony has not publicly released its sales figures yet, though the company claims that the numbers are more a result of supply than demand.
“We sold every PS4 available at retail in the US and were out of stock in December due to overwhelming consumer demand,” Sony’s Dan Race told The Verge. “PlayStation 4 remains the cumulative leader for next-gen console sales in the US since the launch on November 15th.”
Regardless of the reason why, the numbers fit with earlier announcements from Microsoft, which claimed that the Xbox One had sold over 3 million units worldwide. Microsoft has yet to break down those numbers by region though.
This is good news for Microsoft, but the lack of exact sales figures for the PS4 makes it difficult to know exactly where the consoles stand against each other. With the supply chains strained for both consoles, it may be a few months at least before we have an accurate sense of which console is actually more in demand.
November sales reports had the PS4 and the Xbox One nearly even at 2.1 million and 2 million sold worldwide, respectively. Throughout the current generation of consoles, the Xbox 360 has generally outsold the PlayStation 3 in the U.S., while Sony’s console has had the edge in Europe and Japan. We should know more when both companies release their sales numbers from the previous quarter later this month.
Speaking of the current generation of consoles, the NPD report also claimed that the Xbox 360 had a good month, with 643,000 units sold in the U.S. alone.
