PS4 VS Xbox One: PlayStation 4 Sales Had A Small Lead In US Before Titanfall, Says NPD

The PS4 VS Xbox One console battle is heating up once again as the PlayStation 4 NPD sales numbers for February show that Sony only has a small lead over Microsoft in the United States. But could the launch of Titanfall bring a March surprise?

In a related report by The Inquisitr, some people might be surprised the PlayStation 4 NPD sales numbers in December were beat not only by the Xbox One, but by the Nintendo 3DS!

Regardless, worldwide the PS4 continues to dominate, with the latest estimates showing PS4 sales to be somewhere over six million as of March. Microsoft has only said that they’ve shipped 3.9 million Xbox One as of the end of 2013, so it’s estimated they may be close to the five million mark right now. This is actually pretty impressive since both companies previously had estimated only reaching five million by the end of March and polls claimed gamers weren’t too interested in either platform before they launched.

So why is the PS4 winning? It’s often pointed out that the PS4 launched in 48 countries while the Xbox One launch countries only numbered 13. Because of this, PlayStation 4 availability was very poor and it’s still almost impossible to find a PS4 in stock in the United States.

Considering the scarcity issue in America, it’s actually quite a win for the NPD to say the PS4 led hardware sales in America, even if only by a narrow margin. Sony hasn’t released exact US sales numbers, but Microsoft has said they’ve sold 258,000 units. Since Xbox One unit sales were 90 percent of PS4 sales, we can estimate the PS4 sales numbers at roughly 287,000.

On the software, side things were not so hot. The cost of transitioning to new hardware has gamers spending less on actual games. For example, publisher Ubisoft expected this trend, which is why they weren’t surprised when Assassin’s Creed 4 sold less than AC3 even though AC4: Black Flag was considered the better game by many.

Now these NPD sales numbers were only for February. Some people expect the Titanfall Xbox One launch to be a Halo moment that amps the sales figures significantly. Industry insider Pete Dodd says this is true, but it may not be enough to catch up to the PS4:

“Microsoft has a very real image problem right now. And if ‘Titanfall’ doesn’t help correct that there isn’t any reason to think anything will this year. Marketing guys project that ‘Titanfall’ has already helped sell around 1 million Xbox Ones. This is based off of things like upticks in sales after every major ‘titanfall’ announcements. They don’t know if it will move 200k more at this point. The ‘titanfall’ bundle is selling less than Microsoft projected (but they are still hopeful for a big swing come tuesday). If ‘titanfall’ doesn’t turn around the sales… and the image problem – what will?”

Do you think the Xbox One VS PS4 might be decided by Titanfall in the short term?