Sony confirmed in an interview that its console PlayStation 4 has taken a lead over its competitor, Microsoft's Xbox One, with nearly double the sales in January.
Sony seems to be nearing its target of selling over 5 million PS4 units by March. The latest announcement from the company is just a reminder of PlayStation 4's inevitable success. A monthly NPD report on North American sales put out the figures, which were later confirmed by Sony. PS4 outsold Xbox One by nearly double the sales in January.
In an interview posted on the PlayStation Blog, Sony Marketing Vice President John Koller confirmed that the PS4 had a strong lead in January over Xbox One. "In the US, PS4 was #1 in sales for next-gen consoles in January, nearly doubling the nearest next-gen competitor," said Koller, citing recently published figures from NPD retail-tracking firm. "And PS4 remains the cumulative leader here based on today's report from the NPD Group."
Sony announced 4.2 million units of PS4 sold till date, earlier in January. With this, the company gets even closer to achieving its set goal of 5 million units by its March deadline. The impressive sales of PS4 are set to go up as the company waits to launch the console in Japan in less than two weeks. "I think the PS4 demand is indicative of how we've tapped into something special - and that's that gamers want to be recognized for their greatness and want to enjoy experiences together," Koller added.
Microsoft, on the other hand, confirmed that it sold 3 million Xbox One consoles worldwide by the end of 2013. While it marks a significant success for the pricey model, it fails to keep at par with the $100-less PS4.
The extreme demand for the high-end gaming consoles also called for an increase in digital downloads. Sony PS4's dominance made it quite clear that the PS4 version titles are outselling Xbox One versions. But Xbox One stayed ahead in the race with two titles, Call of Duty: Ghosts and Lego Marvel Super Heroes, NPD reports via Venture Beat revealed. If Xbox One and Xbox 360 titles are combined, Microsoft had a bigger victory in this category.
"January NPD Group figures released today revealed [that] Xbox systems sold the most games across all console platforms in January with 2.27 million units sold, making up 47 percent of software market share," Microsoft marketing boss Yusuf Medhi wrote in the company's official blog. "Fans continue to show their excitement for new-generation Xbox One games, with U.S. consumers purchasing an average of 2.7 games per console since launch."
