The PS4 has been the US's top-selling console for six months straight
The Xbox One's $100 price cut may have doubled its sales, but the PS4 is still leading the pack.
The NPD Group's monthly US retail sales report for June confirms Sony's announcement that the PS4 outsold the Xbox One yet again, giving it six consecutive months ahead of the Xbox One.
The report comes just one day after Microsoft announced that dropping both the Kinect and the price more than doubled Xbox One sales month-over-month.
Let's just pause and think about that for a second. For about three weeks in June, Xbox One sales were more than double what they were in May - and the PS4 still sold more than the Xbox One. This is a strange new future indeed.
Actually, hardware is doing well across the board, jumping 106% year-on-year to $292.7 million.
Despite a 3% year-on-year dip in software sales to $286.8 million, and flat accessories at $156.9 million, the spike in hardware drove total industry spend to climb 24% year-on-year to $736.4 million.
“The 106% increase in hardware sales (vs. June 2013) was lifted entirely by console hardware sales, which were up by over 200 percent. The strong sales performance of console hardware helped to offset the declines seen in portable hardware,” NPD analyst Liam Callahan said.
“Combined sales of Xbox One and PS4 are over 80% higher than the combined totals for Xbox 360 and PS3 - an indication of the strength of the start of this new console generation.”
Interestingly, while a couple of big new releases dominated the charts, the NPD said that new releases in June sold 67% less year-on-year, but games released across the whole of the quarter sold 47% more strongly. So in general game sales were strong, but Watch Dogs and Mario Kart 8 didn't capture audiences the way The Last of Us, Animal CrossingL New Leaf and Minecraft Xbox 360 did in June 2013.
In a press release which followed the PND's report, Nintendo said Mario Kart sold 885,000 copies in its first five weeks.
Here's the full top ten software chart.
- Watch Dogs (PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One)
- Mario Kart 8 (Wii U)
- Minecraft (PS3, Xbox 360)
- EA Sports UFC (PS4, Xbox One)
- FIFA 14 (PS3, PS4, Vita, Xbox 360, Xbox One)
- NBA 2K14 (PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One)
- Wolfenstein: The New Order (PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One)
- Call of Duty: Ghosts (PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One)
- Tomodachi Life (3DS)
- Grand Theft Auto 5 (PS3, Xbox 360)
Note that the NPD's data does not include digital and other non-traditional game purchasing, so dips or soft growth in software and total industry spend are often less dire than they appear.