The Nintendo Switch was the No.-1-selling game console in December, but Microsoft’s Xbox One family of consoles outsold Sony’s PlayStation 4, according to market researcher NPD Group.
It’s no surprise that Microsoft could beat Sony in December, as Microsoft launched its Xbox One X console in November and Sony didn’t have any new hardware. But it was a rare piece of good news for Microsoft, as Sony’s PS4 has outsold the Xbox One by two-to-one in this generation.
Aaron Greenberg, head of Xbox marketing at Microsoft, sent out a celebratory tweet.
Was trying to just thank folks for supporting us and the incredible success following the launch of Xbox One X. But yes Xbox outsold PS4 in December for Gen 8 consoles according to NPD data, while Nintendo also had a great month as Switch had most overall units.
— Aaron Greenberg (@aarongreenberg) January 12, 2018
December is a big month because of holiday sales. Sony indicated earlier that it also had a good holiday season, with sales of 5.9 million PS4s. To date, Sony has sold more than 73.6 million PS4s since 2013, while Nintendo has sold more than 10 million Switch consoles since March 2017. Microsoft doesn’t release its figures.
Overall, sales of games and hardware and accessories grew 11 percent in 2017.
“Combined sales of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One continue on a record-setting pace,” NPD analyst Mat Piscatella said. “Over the first 50 months in market for each console, the combined hardware installed base of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One now exceeds that of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 by 18 percent, and that of the PlayStation 2 and Xbox by 4 percent.”