With the NPD data continuing to trickle in, we now see that 1.21 million units of the PS3 were sold during December. That's certainly not bad but it represents an 11% decline, versus Xbox 360's 42% jump. The last two months of the year are the two most important in the gaming business when everyone shops for the holidays. With December in the rear-view, totals can be added, and we see that PS3's total for November-December is just 1.74 million compared to Xbox 360's whopping 3.27 million.
That represents a difference of 88%, and it has to be somewhat disappointing for Sony. We still don't know how many units of Move have truly been sold through to consumers - last we heard, Sony announced it had shipped over 4 million units. Worse still, the lone 'AAA' title for PS3 this holiday season was Gran Turismo 5, and it didn't even make the top 10 chart.
While some analysts believe the PS3 will soon pass the Xbox 360 in installed base worldwide, these past couple months certainly don't point towards that. On the bright side, Sony does indeed have a very stacked exclusive games lineup for 2011.
13 Comments
January 13, 2011
Kinect was a big driver for Microsoft and Gran Turismo just doesn't have the cache here that it does in other parts of the world. The last minute delay of LBP 2 hurt the diversity of Sony's lineup this holiday, but 2011 is pretty stacked for the PS3.
January 14, 2011
Kinect created a big surge in the US for 360 hardware, but the device itself is pretty gimmicky and shortlasting in its appeal imo, and the the hype will probably plummet precipitously in 2011. By the middle of the year, no one in the general casual public will even remember Kinect, once the effect of that $500 million launch-hype budget wears off. 360 sales will return to normal, and couple that with a well-timed PS3 price drop, and we'll still be seeing the PS3 in a very favorable position by the end of 2011.
January 14, 2011
Say what you want, Microsoft is making $. Go 360!
January 14, 2011
@Jason,
That $500m marketing budget won't have been blown already on getting the Kinect message out there as it was set aside for a 12 month marketing campaign. So I wouldn't be too sure that Kinect will fall so quickly out of the public consciousness. Move, on the other hand, could die an early death unless Sony put some marketing love into it.
Sony have a great line up of games for 2011 and this should ensure the PS3 continues to sell strongly. But any price cut will be met by one from Microsoft so, in the US at least, I don't think such a move will significantly boost sales for 2011. However, Sony is strong in other markets and that is where (especially Europe) I see their focus for growth heading.
January 14, 2011
Thanx to IG for offering view into NPD. If you subscribe you get the data, so publishers have it all. This is correct, right? PS3 only outsold Xbox ONE MONTH of its lifecycle so far. ONE MONTH! Sony went from #1 to this? PS3 is a good product. Their games are solid. What gives?
January 14, 2011
To the fucken moron that says the PS3 has only outsold the 360 one month in its life cycle, get your facts straight. I'm not a fanboy just a guy that hates stupid idiots like you spewing false information. How is the PS3 so close to the 360 in sales and has only outsold it once? You're a fucken idiot
January 14, 2011
NPD only reports on U.S. sales - I'm not sure off the top of my head, but I know the PS3 has not outsold the Xbox 360 many months in the U.S. It's certainly not more than a handful.
January 14, 2011
http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2008/06/why-we-dont-ref/
http://www.examiner.com/xbox-360-in-national/why-vgchartz-isn-t-considered-reliable
VG charts is a bunch crap. And when the PS3 slim launched it outsold the 360 more than a handful of months
January 14, 2011
@rewgtwr thanks for the compliment! that's why I put the question of there ... not to be insulted but corrected if wrong. And to be honest, if I;m wrong i'm not far off. appreciate your passion, though. maybe Sony could use some of it to improve their market position :-)
January 14, 2011
How much did the Wii sell in December?
January 14, 2011
Wii sold 2.36 million I believe, which is actually a big decline but still pretty far ahead of 360 and PS3.
January 15, 2011
Sony may have not had a great year but they are solid and this year is looking great. But looking great is not the same as having sales numbers go up vs. down. Only at this time next year will we know if Kinect was a flash in the pan and Sony's big AAA games year panned out at all.
January 17, 2011
First, to those getting defensive stop... Both systems are just great.
To answer the question from Rewgtwr that was put not so nicely you said "How is the PS3 so close to the 360 in sales and has only outsold it once" I'm sure the ps3 outsold the 360 more than once in U.S. but it was not more than a few times, and the reason it has hung sort of close to 360 is two fold.
1)most 360 owners (like ps3 owners) are hard core gamers. They own both systems. 2) Early on (and to some degree still) the ps3 sold as a bluray only. Bluray players at the time of ps3 launch were over $1,000.00, ps3's were $600.00. And ps3's for a good 2 years were cheaper and better quality than most bluray players.
2) Many people buy it because its still one of the best blurays on the market, and they hardly buy games.
Also consider that yes, the ps3 has a stellar lineup this year. However, of that line up very few games were top sellers. Killzone 2 (great game) did not over perform nor push systems. Little Big Planet 1, (excellent game) but again was a sales let down. Same goes for most all of the big Sony sequels. They are great games that do not sell in amazing numbers. In other words, Sony has already had their chance to make these games sell systems. If their prior iterations did not push systems the sequels are most likely are not going to either. The ps3 will remain steady in sales this year, but will not gain ground on the 360.