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Microsoft Claims Top U.S. December Hardware Sales On Both Generations, But 3DS Wins Overall
December marked the first month that both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were on sale for the entire data collection time span. Microsoft's Larry Hryb a.k.a. Major Nelson tweeted out the latest numbers the company got from NPD, and it appears things turned out well for team Xbox.
Check it out:
NPD: Xbox One and Xbox 360 were the top selling consoles for each generation in the US in December. 908k (Xbox One) and 643k (Xbox 360)
— Larry Hryb (@majornelson) January 16, 2014
This statement was confirmed in a later email from Microsoft. However, the NPD Group’s Liam Callahan paints a slightly different picture when considering the full lifespan of the consoles.
"Xbox One led consoles sales in December, while PS4’s two-month total makes it the best selling console during the two-month launch window,” he says.
The best performance for a hardware platform comes from Nintendo's 3DS, though its more affordable pricetag prevented it from garnering the lion's share of profits. "Nintendo’s 3DS topped overall hardware sales for December 2013 and for 2013 as a whole," Callahan says. "However, with its $499.99 price point, the Xbox One led annual hardware sales on a dollars basis."
Nintendo also got some positive news for the beleaguered Wii U, with December 2013 being its "highest month for unit sales month so far” according to the NPD data.
Overall, December hardware sales rose 28 percent year over year, from $1.07 billion to $1.37 billion. Total hardware yearly sales rose 5 percent from $4.04 billion in 2012 to $4.26.
Our Take:
It's always heartening to see the hardware market performing well on the release of new consoles. It'll be interesting to see if Microsoft can stay ahead of Sony going into 2014. This battle will likely be determined by their respective game libraries.
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