The PlayStation 4 had a strong holiday season, despite a slight dip in hardware sales. After all, 5.9 million units is still pretty darn good. However, it wasn’t even the strongest-selling console in December.
The NPD Group has yet to publicly release its sales reports for December, but Xbox marketing chief Aaron Greenberg recently tweeted that Xbox One outsold the PlayStation 4 in December. The Nintendo Switch, meanwhile, supposedly outsold both the Xbox One and the PS4.
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
Yes, such is Nintendo’s hot streak that the head of Xbox marketing is touting a second-place finish online.
According to (the sometimes sketchy) VG Chartz, the last time the Xbox One outsold the PlayStation 4 in the U.S. was a four-month period spanning July 2016 to October 2016, most likely due to the release of the Xbox One S. It seems that history is repeating itself, as the release of the Xbox One X in November 2017 probably had a lot to do with the Xbox One’s success in December, which is in line with some predictions.
We’ll find out what the exact numbers were soon enough, but all in all it sounds like the holiday season was pretty strong overall for the gaming industry.
