The battle of the consoles between Sony and Microsoft has been hard fought across several generations of machines. Sony’s PlayStation 4 has outsold the Microsoft Xbox One up until the past four months, which have seen the balance in the market be tipped in favor of Microsoft.
According to data from market researchers NPD(via Venturebeat), the Xbox One is the best selling of all consoles in the US since July. Xbox’s head of marketing Mike Nichols thanked consumers for the “passion of Xbox fans worldwide and their continued excitement for the Xbox One S.” He confirms that the Xbox One was the best-selling console in October in the U.S. U.K. and Australia. He also adds that the “Xbox One has been the best-selling console in the U.S. for the past four months, and in the U.K. and Australia in each of the last two months.” (Beaten by the Nintendo 3DS.)
Microsoft have credited the rise in sales thanks to a strong showing at the Electronic Entertainment Expo trade show in Los Angeles in June. Special offers on the Xbox One, and excitement surrounding the more powerful Xbox One S may have also contributed to it outselling the PlayStation 4 during the slow summer period of console purchasing.
Mike Nichols has also stated that Gears of War 4 and the top selling Battlefield 1 have helped see Xbox Live multi-player involvement increase by 52% compared to last year. Total gaming hours on Xbox consoles has also increased by as much as 42%, reaching 1.55 billion hours worldwide.
Other interesting information released recently by NPD takes a closer look at micro-transactions and DLC purchases. They show that 28% of the US population (between ages 13-54) have purchased additional content for online games in the past 3 months.
All in all, it sounds like good news for Microsoft for the past few months.