Xbox One Sales Double In June, But Does PS4 Still Lead?
Microsoft was happy to announce Wednesday that sales of the Xbox One in the United States more than doubled from May to June. However, is that enough to outsell Sony’s Playstation 4?
“Over the past month, we’ve seen a strong spike in interest in our Xbox One console options, including the new $399 offering, and the amazing lineup of games announced during E3,” Microsoft announced on the Xbox Wire. “Since the new Xbox One offering launched on June 9th, we’ve seen sales of Xbox One more than double* in the US, compared to sales in May, and solid growth in Xbox 360 sales.”
The NPD sales for May 2014 showed that the Xbox One sold only 77,000 units for the month, less than half of the Sony’s 197,000 units sold for the PS4. Sales for the month were expected to be down after Microsoft announced a $399.99 version of the console launching in June. This caused potential buyers to wait for a price drop and sales of the console to tank for the month of May.
“More than double” would put sales of the new Xbox at around a minimum of 160,000 units for the month of July. That’s still short of the 197k PS4s that sold last month and there’s no indication that sales of Sony’s console sold less in June than the previous month.
Xbox has announced that Xbox One sales doubled in June vs May. Did Xbox get #1 spot in June? We will find out tomorrow.
— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) July 16, 2014
The official June 2014 NPD numbers will be announced Thursday. If Microsoft felt confident that the Xbox One was the top selling console for June 2014, it would have announced the number one position along with news of doubling sales.
The good news from Microsoft’s perspective is that the increase in sales for the Xbox One puts it closer to the PS4 even if it isn’t outright in the lead. Additionally, this occurred during the summer months which are traditionally a slow period for console sales until the action picks up in the fall. That will be a more telling time in the current console war with the release of exclusives like Halo: Master Chief Collection, Sunset Overdrive, Forza Horizon 2 and Ori and the Blind Forest. These will be joined by third-party titles such as Assassin’s Creed Unity, Evolve, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Destiny and more.
Sony will have its own line-up of exclusives and the same third-party titles but also more momentum in European countries where it is currently available more widely than the Xbox One and with greater demand. Microsoft will have to keep beating the drums of games, services and a cheaper price plus release the console to more countries if it plans to stay with the PS4 this generation.
