The NPD report for August 2016 has been released to subscribers and Microsoft isn’t shy about boasting which video game console was the best selling platform.Aaron Greenberg took to Twitter to announce that the Xbox One S lead the way.
Thanks to everyone for the amazing support making @Xbox One #1 selling console in US for August from @npdgroup second month in a row!
— Aaron Greenberg (@aarongreenberg) September 8, 2016
As Greenberg noted, this makes the second month in a row the XBox One outsold its rival, the PlayStation 4. The most recent XBox victory after that was back in October 2015 when Halo 5: Guardians was released.
While Microsoft understandably wants to boast about their triumph, this was hardly unexpected. The XBox One S launched in August and was bound to take the top spot on the sales charts. A redesigned console, the XBox One S is siginificantly smaller than the original Xbox One and boasts extra features such as HDR processing and 4K upscaling.
Another Xbox marketing executive, Mike Nichols, offered the following statement regarding the most recent NOD numbers:
“Thanks to our fans and their excitement for new Xbox One games and the recently launched Xbox One S — which is the only console available this holiday with built-in UHD 4K Blu-ray, 4K video streaming, and HDR for video and gaming — Xbox One was the best-selling console in the U.S. in August, according to NPD Group. In addition, we continue to see strong engagement on Xbox Live — the fastest, most reliable gaming network — with total global gaming hours on Xbox One consoles increasing 42 percent year-over-year. We’ve also received an incredible response to Xbox Design Lab, which saw millions of visits to the site and hundreds of thousands of designs created by fans. We’re excited to launch Clubs and Looking for Group on Xbox Live broadly this holiday alongside some of our biggest titles for the year, including ReCore, Forza Horizon 3, Gears of War 4 and Dead Rising 4.”
Microsoft’s winning streak may not last for long though. Yesterday Sony announced their own redesigned console known as the PS4 Slim which is due to be released later this month. In November Sony will launch the PlayStation 4 Pro, a significantly more powerful console designed to act as a mid-generation upgrade to the PS4.
Microsoft also has a powerful system in the works that is codenamed Scorpio. That system is due to be released in the holiday 2017 shopping season.
In the meantime, TICGN will keep you updated on NPD news.
