Sony tops Microsoft for U.S. console sales in November

Sony topped Microsoft for U.S. consoles sales during a busy shopping month in November.

One month after Microsoft sold more Xbox One devices than Sony’s PlayStation 4 in October — breaking Sony’s five-month win streak — Sony went back on top for November.

“We have hit several key milestones over the last few weeks,” Eric Lempel, Senior VP of Marketing for Sony Computer Entertainment America, said in a statement. “Prior to Black Friday, we announced we have sold through more than 30.2 million PS4s to consumers around the world and that PS4 continues to exhibit the fastest growth in PlayStation hardware history. In addition, Black Friday sales were the strongest in PlayStation history demonstrating more people game now than ever before. We are also pleased to announce November was the biggest month ever for PlayStation Store indicating a strong digital marketplace complementing healthy retail sales.”

Microsoft, meanwhile, said it enjoyed its “best November ever” in the U.S. for Xbox One with new records for console sales, game sales and Xbox Live engagement. Here’s the company’s full statement:

“Last month was our best November ever in the U.S. for Xbox One, setting new records for console sales, game sales and Xbox Live engagement. The most critically-acclaimed holiday lineup of exclusives in Xbox history helped drive 44 percent growth in Xbox Live hours over last November, and 72 percent growth in U.S. first-party retail game sales comparing sales from August through November in 2015 to the same period last year. It’s amazing to see the energy from Xbox fans for exclusives like ‘Halo 5: Guardians,’ ‘Rise of the Tomb Raider,’ ‘Forza Motorsport 6,’ ‘Gears of War: Ultimate Edition’ and ‘Rare Replay,’ for the incredible catalog of third-party games on Xbox One and for Xbox One Backward Compatibility, which launched in November. This holiday is shaping up to be a great one for our industry and for Xbox fans.” – Mike Nichols, Corporate Vice President, Xbox Marketing, Microsoft

Both Microsoft and Sony offered a handful of console bundle deals during Black Friday and Cyber Monday last month, going as low as $299 for not only the console but also a bundled game. Microsoft will continue selling bundle deals at $299 through Christmas, while Sony is doing the same through Dec. 19.

NPD reported today that November 2015 was the best month ever for total unit sales of eighth generation consoles (Xbox One, PS4, Wii U), surpassing sales in December 2014. Overall console hardware sales were up 14 percent from November 2014. It also noted that the combined sales for the PS4 and Xbox One during their first 25 months on sale are 47 percent higher than the combined sales for the first 25 months of PS3 and Xbox 360 hardware sales.

Here were the top-selling games from November 2015 (NPD does not count digital sales):

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops III
2. Fallout 4
3. Star Wars Battlefront 2015
4. Madden NFL 16
5. NBA 2K16
6. FIFA 16
7. Need For Speed 2015
8. Halo 5: Guardians
9. Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate
10. Just Dance 2016

Editor’s note: Information and quotes from Microsoft were added to this post.