Gaming consoles dropped in January, which is to be expected given that the holiday season ended.
However, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are both performing better than their predecessors in terms of sales in their lifecycle. Both consoles have sold 60% more than the predecessor consoles (Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3) at the same point in their lifecycle.
What this means is that there are far more people who own the latest gaming consoles compared to when the companies made their previous offerings.
Now that the holiday season is over console sales have dropped by a bit.
Hardware sales fell by 23 percent in January, while sales of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One fell 22 percent. Sales of previous-generation consoles dropped by 35 percent.
The PlayStation 4 outsold the Xbox One in January, according to NPD. The Xbox One was the best-selling console in the US for November and December, however, it appears as though the $50 price drop was not enough to keep it at number one.
A statement from a Sony Computer Entertainment America spokesperson, as reported by Gamespot, said:
“PlayStation 4 was the top-selling console in January and remains the cumulative leader in the U.S., according to NPD data. Since launching in November 2013, 18.5 million PS4 units and 81.8 million software units have been sold through to consumers worldwide,”
According to Nintendo, sales of the Wii U console and related software rose by 30 and 45 percent (respectively) in January versus the same time period the year before. Nintendo hasn’t posted any specific numbers yet though.
In January software and accessory sales gained 5 percent and 3 percent (respectively) or $12.4 million and $5.4 million.