Our last article on the topic of the so-called “Console War” was a cover of Michael Pachter’s statement where he blatantly said that the Xbox One console will never be able to catch up to the PS4 console in terms of sales units (you can read about it here). This is kind of silly really when you’re making such a remark about two of the heavyweights, especially in the tech industry where innovation and time can make the difference.
Sony still reaps the advantage of having an initial fanbase when the Xbox 360 debuted back in 2005, but the console has since made a name for itself even in a tough monopolised market. Looking at the most recent numbers of November 2015, PS4 still tops the charts as the top-selling console but the Xbox One had a strong month as well.
Comparing the overall console unit sales of November 2015 with 2014, NPD analyst Liam Callahan said that “November 2015 marked the best month ever in total unit sales when you combine Xbox One, PS4, and Wii U, surpassing sales of December 2014 and November 2014,”
“Within console hardware sales there were dramatic differences by console generation as eighth-generation consoles, [which includes Xbox One, PS4, and Wii U] sales rose by 22 percent in dollars and last generation sales dropped by 76 percent in dollars, which is sharper than the year-to-date decline of 57 percent,” said Callahan. “In November 2015, eighth-generation sales had 93 percent share of overall hardware sales, a 9 percentage point increase from last November.”
The above statistics show clearly that the sales trend for current-gen consoles is rising fast and that previous-gen console sales are seeing a strong downward trend (understandable given the increasing awareness and the mass marketing of the Xbox One and PS4).
“After 25 months, the combined sales for the PS4 and the XBO are 47 percent higher than the combined sales for 25 months of PS3 and Xbox 360 hardware sales,” said Callahan.
