Video games are bigger than ever, and the industry has the numbers to prove it.
The latest sales figures from market research firm NPD Group reveals that overall, the latest generation of game consoles is outselling the previous generation. The Xbox One and PlayStation 4 have sold 80 percent more consoles in the U.S. for the first nine months of their launches than Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 did in the same time period. Revenue from hardware has also doubled in July 2014 compared to last July, no doubt due to the adoption of the new consoles.
But, looking at individual sales for each of the new consoles, Sony's PlayStation 4 has outsold Microsoft's Xbox One for the seventh consecutive month. Sony recently announced it had sold 10 million PS4 consoles worldwide. That is the highest sales for a PlayStation console's first nine months of release, surpassing the launches of the original PlayStation in 1994, the PlayStation 2 in 2000 and the PlayStation 3 in 2006.
Microsoft stated last month that sales of the Xbox One in America had doubled with the price drop to $399, which came with the unbundling of the Kinect motion camera. The company has said that July sales numbers have also been strong. The company has been mum on its total Xbox One sales since it revealed that a total of 5 million units were shipped globally by April. The actual number sold is now almost certainly near or over 6 million, considering the increased sales rate at the lower price.
In terms of software sales, those are down 70 percent year over year, largely due to the delay of the release of NCAA Football, because of legal issues. The Last of Us was the bestselling game in the U.S., though that was the combined sales of both the original PS3 version and the Remastered edition for PS4.
Minecraft, FIFA 14, Watch Dogs, Mario Kart 8 and Call of Duty: Ghosts round out the top five bestselling video games for July.
Sales of both hardware and software usually increase in the last four months of the year, due to the number of releases of highly anticipated games. Expect sales of both consoles to increase with such game releases.
The Xbox One and the PlayStation 4, along with Nintendo's Wii U, are considered the eighth generation of video game consoles, going all the way back to the first generation of home console, the Magnavox Odyssey from 1972.
