Update: Official NPD numbers show the PS4 still on top for the month of September. See our followup story.
Giving away free games may have helped Microsoft finally beat Sony for the monthly console sales crown in the U.S.
Michael Pachter, a video game analyst with Wedbush Securities, wrote in a letter to investors that he expects Xbox One U.S. sales to rise by 104 percent from August to September and reach 325,000 units sold — beating Sony’s Playstation 4 by 75,000 units for last month.
We’ll know more when The NPD Group reveals official numbers on Thursday, but if Patcher is right, this would break Sony’s eight-month win streak and be just the second time that the Xbox One has outsold the PS4 since both consoles launched this past November.
Pachter credits Microsoft’s free-game promotion in September, when it offered free copies of the popular sci-fi shooter Destiny with a purchase of the Xbox One, along with other package deals like its Madden NFL 15 bundle. Microsoft has plans to offer more bundles this holiday season.
The PS4 has outsold the Xbox One in the U.S. for the past eight months and that includes June, despite the fact that Microsoft doubled its Xbox One sales during that month after it began selling a $399 version of the Xbox One without the Kinect sensor on June 9 — a $100 price cut from the Xbox One with Kinect. The PS4 has stayed at $399 since launch.
After Pachter published his letter, it looks like the analyst received quite a bit of backlash from Sony fans who weren’t too happy with his predictions:
https://twitter.com/michaelpachter/status/522029811355512832
https://twitter.com/michaelpachter/status/522030350411644929
https://twitter.com/michaelpachter/status/522031070892417024
https://twitter.com/michaelpachter/status/522032847289217025
