Despite facing more competition from a $100 cheaper Xbox One, Sony and its PlayStation 4 came out ahead last month in North American sales for the sixth month straight.
Not only that, but the NPD says the PlayStation brand overall reigned supreme for the month of June, with combined PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 sales totaling more than the combined sales of Microsoft's Xbox One and Xbox 360.
This news comes just as Microsoft announces that Xbox One sales in June doubled Xbox One sales from May, thanks in large part to the $100 Xbox One price drop, which separated the console from the at one time mandatory Kinect camera.
"Combined sales of Xbox One and PS4 are over 80 percent higher than the combined totals for Xbox 360 and PS3 - an indication of the strength of the start of this new console generation," NPD Group says.
In next-generation software sales PS4 also came out ahead. Across the top 10 best selling games last month available on both next-generation systems, PS4 sold more. This isn't terribly surprising considering the PS4 userbase is several millions ahead of the Xbox One. Interestingly, in games available for both Xbox 360 and PS3 the Xbox versions sold more.
Watch Dogs, Ubisoft's open-world action game available for both current-gen and last-gen consoles, was the best selling game for June. However, Nintendo is quick to point out that if factored by SKU (game per console rather than total game sales across all platforms), Mario Kart 8 would claim the number one bestselling game spot with more than 470,000 units sold in June for Wii U for a grand total of 885,000 units sold. The NPD points out that "nine out of the last 10 months saw year-over-year growth in new physical game sales," a strong indicator that games, at physical games at retail, as opposed to digital downloads, aren't leaving anytime soon.
Though Microsoft and Sony sit at the top of the list for June video game console and software sales, Nintendo is seeing a big boost thanks to the popularity of Mario Kart 8. Wii U hardware sales are up 233 percent year-over-year, with software sales up 373 percent year-over-year. Nintendo's 3DS handheld also continued strong, with hardware sales up 55 percent from May to June thanks Tomodachi Life, which managed to crack to the top 10 bestselling games for the month.
Total video game sales for June 2014 equaled $736.4 million, up 24 percent from June 2013. Of that total nearly $300 million came from hardware sales.
