‘Destiny’ Sells More On Xbox One, But PlayStation 4 Rules September NPD
Bungie’s Destiny was expected to be the number one seller for September and it didn’t disappoint. However, NPD sales figures released Thursday paint an interesting breakdown of how it sold on PlayStation and Xbox consoles. The PlayStation 4, however, continued its dominance in the next-gen console war.
The September NPD software sales chart broke down as follows. The platforms listed are in order of highest selling to lowest selling.
- Destiny (Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3)
- Madden NFL 15 (360, PS4, PS3, Xbox One)
- FIFA 15 (PS4, 360, PS3, Xbox One, Wii, Vita, 3DS)
- Super Smash Bros. for 3DS (3DS)
- Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
- NHL 15 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
- Minecraft (360, PS3)
- The Sims 4 (PC)
- Disney Infinity 2.0 (360, PS3, Wii U, PS4, Xbox One)
- Diablo III: Reaper of Souls (PS4, 360, PS3, Xbox One, PC)
- Hyrule Warriors (Wii U)
According to that chart, Destiny sold more at retail for the Xbox One than the PlayStation 4. There are a couple of caveats that go along with that ranking, though. For starters, Sony offered the PlayStation 4 bundle with Destiny packed in and the console saw a huge jump in sales for the month of September as a result. Secondly, Microsoft ran a promotion where it gave away a free copy of any game with the purchase of an Xbox One.
Despite being free, the Xbox One copies of Destiny sold with Microsoft’s console counts as a sale. Meanwhile, copies bundled with the PlayStation 4 did not count as a sale. Interesting how that works, no? It turns out that Destiny actually sold more on Sony’s console once you factor in worldwide sales and not just North America.
“According to Activision internal estimates, the PS4 system is the #1 platform worldwide for Destiny based on units sold through as of October 4, 2014,” Sony revealed in a press release.
The PlayStation 4 was also the top next-gen console for the three annual EA Sports games plus Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor and Diabio III: Reaper of Souls. The Xbox 360 showed that it still has many owners who haven’t moved on to next-gen yet, however, with Madden NFL 15 selling the best on the console along with Disney Infinity 2.0.
“Breaking: PS4 was September’s top-selling console, leading current-gen software sales including Madden NFL 15, NHL 15 & FIFA 15. Thank you[!]”
Official numbers on console have not been released but VentureBeat says that estimates put the PS4 around 550,000 units sold in September. That’s nearly triple the sales of August, according to Sony, and made it the number one console sold for the month.
Destiny and the promotions surrounding it clearly had a huge impact on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It was understandably not as big as the release of Grand Theft Auto V last September, however. Total revenue was up 2 percent to $1.1 billion, per Games Industry. That was primarily due to the 136 percent increase in hardware sales, though. Software sales actually declined 35 percent to $501.6 million.
