It's a marathon, not a race. Releasing sales #s like these are nothing but pandering to stockholders and throwing out bragging rights that only appeal to the stupidest of readers. I'm not going to buy the console that sells the best. I'll buy the one that fits my demands for a console best, and right now none of them fit enough of them for me to justify purchasing them.
A lot of this is probably due to the fact that the Xbox came out after the PS4. The PS4 is still up by about a million but it came out a little earlier. The big rush of PS4 sales came in November while apparently the Xbox One had it's big rush in December. I think most of us assumed that the sales numbers would start to even out over time.
The other thing to consider here is that these NPD sales numbers only use U.S. sales. The U.S. is Microsoft's strongest market so that could partially explain why the Xbox sold better here in December even though they are down by a million overall.
I also agree with yourbeliefs though. Who cares which system sells better? Unless you are a shareholder that shouldn't matter much. As someone who owns both systems, I don't care about sales outside of one point. I just want both companies to sell well enough to justify pouring money into big budget exclusives. Neither company is in jeopardy there like Nintendo might be so that isn't a concern of mine.
Globally, the only market that matters for shareholders, the PS4 has outsold the Xbox One 4.4 million to 3.1 million, according to the latest figures posted on VGChartz. Keep in mind, Sony decided to sell to a lot more international markets at launch than Microsoft did, thus limiting the number of PS4 available in the US.
Sony is also going to see a decent bump when it releases in Japan later this year, as the Xbox has NEVER been able to gain any traction there for whatever reason.
Sony is also going to see a decent bump when it releases in Japan later this year, as the Xbox has NEVER been able to gain any traction there for whatever reason.
