Don’t count Microsoft out in the “Gaming Console Wars” just yet. The tech titan reported strong Xbox One sales for April, in fact, outselling the PlayStation 4 for the month. Of note, the PS4 has outsold its Microsoft competition for the first three months of the year.
“As the best-selling console in the U.S. in April, fans set record April sales and engagement for Xbox One last month,” Xbox marketing chief Mike Nichols noted in a statement provided to the Media. “Xbox One console sales in the U.S. increased 63 percent in April 2015 compared to April 2014.”
Sony released a statement saying that the PS4 is still the “cumulative leader” in terms of U.S. sales.
Details on April gaming hardware and software sales
Total new game software and hardware sales in U.S. were up close to 3% from $579.5 million in April 2014 to $595.7 million in April 2015, according to The NPD Group. Hardware was down 4% from $191.9 million to $183.9 million for the month. That said, Americans spent $256.7 million on new games in April, which is a 13% year-over-year increase from $227.6 million last year.
“April 2015 hardware sales decreased by 4 percent due to the 55 percent decline in sales of [Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii] hardware,” NPD analyst Liam Callahan commented. “[Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Wii U] hardware sales were stable, and portable hardware increased by 36%.”
However, in terms of unit sales, console sales are actually up 12% in April.
“Declines in hardware dollar sales were due to a decrease in average price of 4%, due to a drop in console hardware pricing,” Callahan explained.
Mortal Kombat X top-selling game in April 2015
Except for Mortal Kombat X, it was a slow month for big releases. The one major release for the month, Mortal Kombat X, easily came in first. VentureBeat points out that MLB 15: The Show had a strong debut at No. 4. However, despite the lack of blockbuster releases, software sales were still up for the month. This makes it clear that gamers are still willing to spend their money just about any games that they can play on their new systems.
