NPD results for the month of December 2013 place Xbox One ahead of the PS4 with a total of 908,000 units sold in the U.S. alone.
Sony has chosen not to publicize its sales figures in the U.S. for the month, and cites supply constraints as the reason for lower throughput. Despite this, Sony is still ahead in cumulative sales, which senior director of corporate communications Dan Race addressed in a statement:
According to the latest NPD report, PlayStation 4 remains the cumulative leader for next gen console sales in the U.S. since the launch on November 15. We sold every PS4 available at retail in the U.S. and were out of stock in December due to overwhelming consumer demand. With more than 4.2 million PS4 systems sold worldwide, it’s clear that the PS4’s gaming and entertainment features are resonating with large audiences and we’re doing our best to provide additional inventory in all of the 53 countries where it’s available.
The Xbox 360 achieved a similar victory by posting 643,000 units sold for the month, beating out the PS3 during the same time frame.
On the software side of things, the Xbox One’s first and second-party lineups have achieved a monumental victory against the PS4 since its launch in November. According to Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg, the Xbox One’s arsenal was able to nearly triple that of the PS4’s. His tweet reads:
Last #NPD fact: 1st/2nd party (exclusives) SW sales for #XboxOne 1.5M units vs. 599K for PS4. Led by Dead Rising, Forza 5 and Ryse.
It’s hard to place a value on these achievements by Microsoft. Sony’s PS4 has been in short supply for over two months, and Sony has placed more emphasis on its international presence. The PS4’s soft launch window library hasn’t helped matters, either. Some of the most popular games on the PS4 right now are either available for free through PS Plus, or are free-to-play games (i.e. Warframe and DC Universe Online).
At this point in the battle numbers are skewed heavily by early marketing and hype. We’ll have to wait until farther along in 2014 to get a better grasp of how Sony and Microsoft will perform during the course of the next-gen.
Previously it was announced that the PS4 has 4.2 million units sold through to consumers, while the Xbox One has 3 million.
