The bestselling console this generation sold better in the U.S. last month than its contender. On top of besting the Wii U and Xbox One in hardware sales in February,PlayStation 4 games were sold at a higher volume than software for rival consoles.
Sony moved to beat both its chest an NPD report on February's hardware and games sales by offering its victory speech early.
Sony said that as the growth of sales continues to increase yearly for the hardware and PS4, it owes the success to the massive "support and enthusiasm" from gamers. The company also added that it will continue to provide new "gaming experience" with theupcoming launches of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Ratchet & Clank and MLB The Show 16.
Microsoft issued a statement of its own; pointing out that the Xbox One is far from dead or dying. The console's "unmatched lineup of games" continues to generate strong responses from players; Microsoft said pointing to the health of the Xbox One's lineup of exclusive and user engagement on Xbox Live.
"We are truly grateful to our fans for choosing to play the greatest games lineup in Xbox history across Windows 10 devices, and are excited to share more in the coming months on our full lineup of holiday exclusives as well as new innovations, features and experiences coming to Xbox One, Windows 10 and Xbox Live," said Mike Nichols, corporate vice president for Xbox Marketing.
For the month of February, sales of Xbox One exclusives were up by about 49 percent year over year, according to Microsoft. Comparing last month to February of 2015, the global total of hours spent gaming on the Xbox One was up by about 93 percent.
Despite the enthusiasm for all of the consoles and rises in some key metrics, the industry saw a decline in the sales of both last and current gen hardware. Hardware sales fell by about 23 percent in February, according to NPD's report.
Portable hardware, which fell by 58 percent, played the biggest role in that decrease. Last gen hardware sales dropped by about 77 percent, while sales of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One hardware contracted by just 6 percent.
