Microsoft Corporation (NASADAQ:MSFT) Xbox One reported November record unit sales 1.2 million units sold in US. By discounting its Xbox One by $50, MSFT console game beat sales of PlayStation 4 by Sony Corp(ADR)(NYSE:SNE) and Wii U as the holiday shopping begins in the US.
Statistics of the sale were from market research conducted by NPD and released on Thursday. Redmond-based Microsoft Corp, also claimed that the Xbox One was topped list of console sales for the past month in UK as well.
The company reasoned that the current sales are based on the popularity of the games lined-up for the holidays. The brisk sales which began in November for the 8th version of the platform have seen global playing hours at 357 million hours.
Mike Nichols who is the corporate Vice President of Xbox Marketing also noted that sales for these games had reached the highest in November.
However, research firm NPD also noted that there was unit downfall in the number of console sales. The total number of dollar sales for the video-game hardware in the US alone had fallen by 23% and reached $1 billion in November. The spike in sales was notable because of the discounts, the research noted.
Analyst at NPD, Liam Callahan opined that the previous generation of consoles, which was the seventh, had seen a massive drop in sales number, in terms of hardware. Eight generation console sales also noted 38 percent decline in hardware sales between November 2013 and November 2014.
Microsoft Corporation (NASADAQ:MSFT), the analyst claimed, however did have to show better numbers if it wanted to play catch-up with lead console seller Sony. In world sales, Xbox continues to trail Sony’s PlayStation.
The analyst also added that despite a fall in dollar sale, the hardware unit sales as per eight generation had increased by over 3 percent in comparison to last year.
