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After an 11-month run at the top of the sales charts, the Xbox One finally outsold the PS4 in November in the US and UK. In the US alone, Xbox One sales totaled an impressive 1.2 million units in November. We don’t have a specific figure for PS4 sales during the same period, but it was probably very close — 1 million units at least, at an educated guess. Is this a sign that a turnaround is on the books — did the library of Xbox One games hit critical mass? — or is it just the predictable result of the deep discounts that Microsoft has been pushing for the last couple of months?

Last month, as you might expect with the orgiastic excesses of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, was a massive month for every console in the US — but according to the third-party market research firm NPD, Microsoft’s Xbox One came out on top. In a separate interview, an Xbox exec confirmed with Gamespot that the Xbox One was indeed the top dog in November. Sadly, neither Sony or NPD has released any data for the PS4 — but hey, after months of Microsoft reticence, I guess it’s time for Sony to be the silent and brooding one.



The giant Xbox One in Vancouver

In case you were wondering, the Wii U also did pretty well in November — we don’t have an exact number of console sales, but NPD is reporting 710,000 sales of Super Smash Bros for the Wii U, which is pretty impressive considering the game was only available for the last week of November. Yes, if you are holding out for some kind of Wii U renaissance based on the long-overdue release of some killer first-party titles, then you might just be in luck. Maybe. The two new Pokemon (Omega Ruby, Alpha Sapphire) are also doing very well, and driving strong sales of the 3DS.

Anyway, back to the primary battlefront: Xbox One vs. PS4. As you probably know, the PS4 has seen some incredible sales since launch in November 2013, outstripping the Xbox One in every key territory. At last count, exactly a month ago, the PS4 was sitting at around 15 million units sold, versus 10 million for the Xbox One. Clearly, the Xbox One had a very good month in November — but a) that doesn’t mean that the PS4 had a bad month, and b) don’t forget that the Xbox One is currently being sold for $350 or less, versus $400 for the PS4.



It was hard to say no to Xbox One Black Friday bundles like this

It’s also worth pointing out that the US and UK are historically Microsoft/Xbox strongholds — while the PS4 has been winning the eighth-generation console war in both territories, the sales gap hasn’t been as pronounced in the US or UK as the rest of Europe or Asia. It is not massively surprising that, with some Xbox One bundles coming in at $150 less than an equivalent PS4 bundle, Microsoft had a stronger Black Friday and Cyber Monday than Sony.

What remains to be seen, however, is whether Xbox One sales will remain strong through the Christmas shopping season — and, more importantly, whether sales stay strong once the Xbox One returns to full price (the discounted price is meant to be temporary, but something tells me it might stick).


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