Xbox One Outsold By PlayStation 4

The console war between Xbox One and PlayStation 4 has been underway for a year, but now PlayStation has taken the U.S. sales crown from the Microsoft mogul for the month of January.

Xbox One led the console market in the months of November and December 2014, but the Playstation 4 has exceeded Xbox One sales for 10 consecutive months leading up to last November. In a statement, a Sony Computer Entertainment America spokesperson gave the number of PlayStation and software units.

“PlayStation 4 was the top selling console in January and remains the cumulative leader in the U.S. according to NPD data… since launch in November 2013, 18.5 million PS4 units and 81.8 million software units have been sold through to consumers worldwide.”

While it isn’t exactly clear by how much PlayStation 4 outsold Xbox One, it may be because Microsoft chose to end the promotional pricing they have had on their console, bringing the cost of the unit from $349 up to $399 for a bundle that doesn’t include the Kinect. However, on January 16, the company reinstated the discount, allowing consumers to save $50 if they choose Xbox One over the PlayStation 4, which has sat at a retail price of $399 since launch.

In 2014 on a worldwide basis, Sony reported 18.8 million PlayStation consoles sold (including PS3 and PS4), Microsoft reported 12.1 million Xbox consoles (including Xbox One and Xbox 360), while Nintendo barely made a dent in the console market with 3.9 million units comprised of Wii and Wii U.

Game publisher Ubisoft has also released numbers that show PlayStation 4 now leads their game sales with 34 percent of the publishers total, with Xbox One sales trailing at 23 percent. That’s a big difference from the company’s Q3 numbers, which showed that both Playstation 4 and Xbox One were neck-and-neck with 12 percent and 9 percent respectively. There may be more Playstation 4’s in the hands of consumers than Xbox One, but up until January, it seemed that more consumers were purchasing Ubisoft games for Xbox One.

Playstation 4 also has the upper hand to Xbox One when it comes to games that are exclusive to the console. Uncharted 4, one of PlayStation’s most popular games, will be released later this year. The Order: 1886, touted as a possible game-changer in terms of visualizations and storytelling, will be out on February 20. Xbox One holds exclusives for Halo and Titanfall, but doesn’t have too much coming up yet for 2015.

Who do you think will ultimately take top prize in the console war? Leave your comments below.

[Images via Digital Trends / GameSpot]