Preliminary: Xbox 360 wins holiday sales battle [update 1]
by Kyle Orland 
{ Jan 2nd 2007 at 10:05AM }
The console sales horse race is more of a marathon than a sprint, but a Register report shows Microsoft edging out the competition in the all important holiday season. The report quotes preliminary NPD numbers mentioned on CNBC to show that Microsoft sold about 2 million Xbox 360s from Nov. 1 through Christmas day, beating out the Wii's estimated 1.8 million in sales. Sony lagged behind with an estimated 750,000 consoles sold through over the two months.A look at last month's numbers and some quick math shows that all three console makers picked up considerable steam going into Christmas, selling two-to-three times as many system in December as in November. The healthy numbers are also encouraging in light of last December's year-on-year decline in the game market as a whole.
Consider these numbers to be hearsay until we can verify the actual NPD numbers later this month, but as it stands now it looks like a relatively un-merry Christmas for the PlayStation 3.
[Thanks, Tom Stone]
[Update: Changed to reflect that Christmas may have been fine for Sony and their PlayStation brand as a whole. It only appears to be an un-merry Christmas for the PS3 ... but we won't know for sure until NPD verifies these numbers or releases their final report.]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
JodyAnthony @ Jan 2nd 2007 10:11AM
Not surprising considering its wider availability and larger library. I hope to pick one up soon myself.
TexRob @ Jan 2nd 2007 10:12AM
Time to go link this on PS3fanboy where those goofballs believed those vgstats sales figures...
icruise @ Jan 2nd 2007 11:03AM
Any talk about one console outselling another (the PS3 in particular) really has to wait until they are actually available in quantities. Sony didn't haven't anywhere near 2 million units available for sale, so even if people wanted to they couldn't have bought that many. I'm not saying that the PS3 would have outsold the Xbox or Wii if they had more units available, but it doesn't make sense to do a comparison like this when sales numbers are still constrained by supply.
David004 @ Jan 2nd 2007 10:18AM
It's just the United States figures so of course the Xbox wins. Xbox is from an American company, has more games, and is easier to find.
tituspullo @ Jan 2nd 2007 10:18AM
Damn, now i need to buy a BOAT! so i can sail away in the river of tears from the PS3 fanboys. salty yet satisying!!
Ricardo @ Jan 2nd 2007 10:22AM
The Wii would have easily won if it had more units available. Hopefully they will more available soon as my fiancee wants one and I wouldn't mind getting zelda. Is really good to see how well the 360 did and will only get better with more games coming out soon like lost planet, crackdown and fuzion frenzy 2. I used to wonder how the 360 had an attach rate of 5 games as that seemed like alot of money to me but now I have 4 and soon 5 with crackdown. Not sure what to say about the ps3 though I guess they are getting VF 5 in february. In the end is all about the games so unless the ps3 starts pumping them out soon they willbe hurting for quite sometime. Go Wii360 :)
Sonic @ Jan 2nd 2007 10:23AM
Did you forget the DS, it may be 'just' a handheld but it sold more then the 360 Wii and PS3.
Harold @ Jan 2nd 2007 10:21AM
You fail to mention that the 360 also had two and a half weeks in November when it was the only console available. I am sure that if you start looking at data around Nov. 17th or 19th the Wii absloutely cleaned up and the PS3 wasn't that far behind the 360. Your post is very misleading because it fails to address this.
32_Footsteps @ Jan 2nd 2007 10:23AM
Yeah, but wasn't the goal to sell 4 million 360s, or it would be a failure of a holiday season for Microsoft?
Meanwhile, the other two figures are probably artificially low considering they didn't have any more units to sell.
Freelancepimp @ Jan 2nd 2007 11:04AM
I wouldn't say it is, "an un-merry christmas for sony," until we found out how many ps2's they moved and how much software.
Pedro @ Jan 2nd 2007 10:26AM
"Meanwhile, the other two figures are probably artificially low considering they didn't have any more units to sell."
But there ARE ps3s to sell. That's what makes this so funny.There are many stores where you can just walk in and buy them.
porkepik @ Jan 2nd 2007 10:27AM
Hum for all the guys laughing at the PS3 figures from vgstats(looking at you texrob) they seems a lot more accurate than nexgenwars, US PS3(NPD):750K Japan PS3(mediacreate):450K total worldwide: 1.2 millions. I'm not a mathematician but this seems awfully close to the VGcharts figures for the PS3 (1.21 millions at the moment)
KineticOnline @ Jan 2nd 2007 10:31AM
Then add all the sales from around the world (vs the 2 and 3 regions for the PS3 and Wii) and 360 come out on top again.
Most people (out side america) dont care about the US stats, its the global ones that really matter :)
porkepik @ Jan 2nd 2007 10:30AM
And texrob it is VG charts not stats.
tituspullo @ Jan 2nd 2007 10:30AM
what about the ps3 returns from the scalpers? when does that figure get included in? i'm sure that will bring the ps3 sales down further.
tituspullo @ Jan 2nd 2007 10:36AM
if the rest of the world mattered sony would have given more consoles to japan but they didn't i'm guessing the US sales are more important to them right now. that's for you "rest of ther world" guys
copa @ Jan 2nd 2007 10:39AM
"Meanwhile, the other two figures are probably artificially low considering they didn't have any more units to sell."
That's true for Nintendo, but probably not for Sony. The PS3 market is pretty well saturated at this point. Check out how Best Buy's blockbuster PS3 sale event went on Sunday:
http://tinyurl.com/ymtee4
So Microsoft outsold Sony by nearly 3 to 1, and Nintendo would have done at least 5 to 1 had there been ample supply.
Pete C @ Jan 2nd 2007 10:40AM
First, in the article it mentions that December sales were twice what they were in November, so the fact that Wii and PS3 were not available for 2 weeks in November didn't really help 360 all that much.
Second, 2 million sold for 360 is just in America, more were sold worldwide. I would hardly call that a failure.
Third, I would argue that PS3 sales were inflated due to people wanting to SELL the console on ebay for a quick profit, which is not the true demand for the console. That effectively almost doubles the amount of consoles in demand, because you have all the people buying them up just to sell them plus all the people that actually want the console to play it. Let's see how that console sells once it is sitting on the shelves, $500 - $600 in cost, and hype all but a memory.
Wii is the one console I think would have way more had the supply been there. That console's hype is seemingly unstoppable at the moment. Everything dries up after Christmas though. The spring and summer months are short on games and hype. We will see what kind of legs the Wii and PS3 have in the face of excellent exclusive game releases and a price drop on the 360.
porkepik @ Jan 2nd 2007 10:41AM
Hum for the rest of the world I'm pretty sure the Wii beat the 360 in europe and Japan (by a least a million in japan)(with 2 weeks of sale less than the 360) Except europe and japan the 360 sold about 100K in the rest of the world. They sold about 750K in europe (about equal to the Wii ). Sale for the 360 was 4.5 millions in US at the end of october, add 2 million + another 2.5 for teh rest of the world it is close to 9 million, I agree it is a nice figure compared to the 1.2 million PS3 and +-4 millions Wii, nice for msoft to have the 1 year head start. The next months will be when we see the tendance (once PS3 launch in europe) I'm sure The 360 will still be on top by the end of 2007 pretty equal to the wii. PS3 will have a distant third place: Let's say 15 millions X360, 13 millions wii and 8-10 millions PS3
Rob @ Jan 2nd 2007 10:49AM
The funny part is , last night i was at best buy in boston. It was about 4 oclock, and they had about 15 60 gig units just sitting there and nobody was even looking at them. The PS3 kioske found no visitors. The Xbox 360 had people crowding around a kid playing Gears. And people were holding xbox360's in their hands.. I just find it funny that people are saying that the only reason this is happening is because u cant find a ps3.. not true, the system u cant find the Wii. I think that alot of people are going to wait until the price drops to about 300 until they buy a PS3.
Flit @ Jan 2nd 2007 10:57AM
FYI, any store i've been to (other than the gamespots and Best Buys) has ps3's in stock, if any of you sony fanboys want one. Just go look somewhere other than the Big box stores. 3 people are looking for a Wii in my family, and can't find those anywhere.
crono141 @ Jan 2nd 2007 10:56AM
The hardcore PS3 market has been satiated. The amount of people willing to get a PS3 at any cost has been reached. Apparently there were only about 1.5 million of them worldwide. Now we are left with the consumer who realized that 500-600 dollars is far to expensive for a game console, regardless of the extra features.
Sales of PS3 will remain unimpressive until next christmas, the next big title, or a price drop, whichever comes first.
Now that people see the competition, I won't be suprised if 360 sales increase this year relative to last year.
The Wii is a different animal. It could continue to sell out indefinitely, or it could suffer from "it looks so last gen" and sales will begin to flounder.
All I know is, I could find a 360 or a PS3 on shelves somewhere (my local EB has 6 as of yesterday). The Wii sells out within minutes of shipments. If this continues, even for another month or 2, the wii will have very impressive numbers by summer to the tune of 6 to 8 million.
wupperbayer @ Jan 2nd 2007 11:00AM
@porkepik: "Hum for all the guys laughing at the PS3 figures from vgstats(looking at you texrob) they seems a lot more accurate than nexgenwars"
True, but the Wii sales are false according to NPD figures - 1.57m (vgcharts) versus 1.8m (NPD). But yes, vgcharts is pretty accurate n general. And they can only become better with the exact NPD figures.
mcloki @ Jan 2nd 2007 11:16AM
Best Buy's were open on Jan 1?
Andy Witmyer @ Jan 2nd 2007 2:38PM
"...Nov. 1 through Christmas day."
Wii came out on Nov. 19 - that's an 18 day advantage for Microsoft. In otherwords, Microsoft had a two week and four day advantage in this chart. Considering that the Wii managed 1.8 million sales compared the the 360's 2 million, I think that's fairly impressive.
wupperbayer @ Jan 2nd 2007 11:10AM
@crono141: "The hardcore PS3 market has been satiated. The amount of people willing to get a PS3 at any cost has been reached. Apparently there were only about 1.5 million of them worldwide."
No, not worldwide. Except you define "worldwide" as "Japan and the Americas" ;-) If the sales in those countries continue to be that mediocre we in Europe maybe will never see the PS3 for its full price. If not, expect about 500.000 more PS3s to be sold in Europe, I can't think of more.
SONY4ever @ Jan 2nd 2007 11:12AM
all you people are sucks your downing the PS3 becuase your too poor to get 1. the sales figures are BS the ps system will pwn all those little girl gaming systems like the 360 and the Wii. i'm tired of all the negitive sony news nothing ever good to say about the PS3. the PS3 IS were the real gamers are
L33T 13337 P*N NUBZ BIATHCES!!!
SONY WILL WIN MS FANYBOYS WILL CRY LIKE LITTLE BABY GIRLS
Dylan Neild @ Jan 2nd 2007 11:15AM
Wow - would have expected more from Joystiq than a Digg-esque hater report. The article was fine until that "un-merry for Sony" crap on the end.
Un-merry, how, exactly? They probably sold a ton of PS2's and PSP's, and they sold almost every PS3 they could make. Yes, you can buy them in SOME places now without getting on a list - but in a lot of towns, you still can't find a PS3 to save your life.
I saw 10 of them sell on a Thursday last week in a 20 minute span in a Best Buy in my home town.
Sony -IS- selling PS3's, weather you haters want to believe it or not.
As for vgcharts .. there are no official numbers yet so we'll see just who is more accurate when there are.
David004 @ Jan 2nd 2007 11:41AM
I like the people who think the PS3 would have sold 3.5 million more consoles if it was released Novemeber 1st and that the Wii would have sold a million a week those two weeks too. You are living in a dream world. And these are only the USA stats and not worldwide.
nicomcm @ Jan 2nd 2007 11:16AM
750 000 / 1 000 000 it's not far from Sony's goal... If only they had launch 400 000 ps3 and not 197 000 because of the bad production... but if the numbers are true that mean that there's no more production problems now. That's great for the European Launch with online motorstorm xD
Lynn @ Jan 2nd 2007 11:17AM
@Harold
360 511,000 in November
Wii 476,000 in November
PS3 197,000 in November
360 1,489,000 in December
Wii 1,324,000 in December
PS3 553,000 in December
The PS3 was not close behind the 360.
SONY4ever @ Jan 2nd 2007 11:20AM
the ps3 woul dhave won if they had the untis to sell you littl ebitches stop saying it wouldn't when sony makes more games you will be running to bestbuy to get 1. but it will be too late becuase they'll be in the hands of true gamers not little bandwagon bitches like you wii babies and 360 fangirls.
Richard @ Jan 2nd 2007 11:32AM
I think the best seller was the DS lite. I live in southern California and work at a video games store. The DS lite was sold out everywhere in the area the two weeks leading up to Christmas. I love the 360 and it sold steady but we sold almost twice as many DS lites. Are there any sales charts that show the data for DS lite sales during this same time period??
SuicideNinja @ Jan 2nd 2007 3:29PM
"The Wii would have easily won if it had more units available. Hopefully they will more available soon as my fiancee wants one and I wouldn't mind getting zelda."
Duh. Does anyone, NOT believe this?
The PS3 is the target on this one. In my area, it was rather amusing to see 8x11 sheets of paper posted in front of stores saying "We have PS3's!". Those signs stayed up for days at a time. Nobody here wants them badly, that's for sure.
The Wii on the other hand...I couldn't find one.
360's were in constant supply and I did see people buying them (we added a 3rd to our house), but we all knew they wouldn't sell out or anything.
Digriz @ Jan 2nd 2007 11:25AM
I dumped my Wii (sounds wrong), And bought a PS3. It definitely looks incredible on a HDTV. Where the Wii looked like a Gamecube. And yes my Best Buy also had tons of PS3 sitting on the floor. As soon as people figured out that they had them they started disappearing.
Also, Gamestop's seem to be hiding the fact that they have them. You have to ask and they say sure we have a couple in the back. I asked why they didn't put a sign up and they said they were worried that it would cause a small riot..... Kind of hard to sell something when you don't let people know you have it.
Samik @ Jan 2nd 2007 11:28AM
How many units did the 360 sell last year? If I remember correctly, it was 1.5m. So the PS3 would have sold as many worldwide, at a higher price?
TexRob @ Jan 2nd 2007 11:33AM
The next big news is going to be all the Wii owners who are dying to drop money on more games that aren't there. It's common for Nintendo to hold back one or two of their mainstays. Zelda, albeit great, is a gamecube port. No mario, no kart, no smash bros, etc. Wario comes out in a few weeks, then nothing for about 3 months or more from Nintendo.
The Wii was ready for market, but the games weren't. I'm not knocking it, I want a Wii and have the money set aside for it. I'm just saying that they really only have a couple of really good games right now, and nothing on the immediate horizon. It could be worse, the PS3, with zero must haves (I've seen and played resistance, that game is pathetic).
Fester @ Jan 2nd 2007 11:32AM
Yeah sure it sold most, it's the best of the 3, the best games, the best online, the best system, the best all rounder. The wii is cool too but the PS3 just doesn't have a place to fit it as the 360 does everything better and for less and with more good games.
Seriously how can ANY serious or even non serious gamer pass up on a 360 now it's prooved it's got what it takes in spec and games over the PS3 and the wii has become a curious novelty that will see some fine games but is no replacement for a "proper" console.
Once you buy 360 you don't look back it's that simple.
Now i'm off to play: Dead Rising, Gears Of War, Viva Pinata, PGR3 and many more great games.
jaysins @ Jan 2nd 2007 11:34AM
I think the release of the PS3 is going to actually help the 360 this year. Up until it release all we could do was speculate how the games were going to look and play and how much fun it would be. Since the launch seems to be below many peoples expectations like mine, coupled with the fact that there is only one good game and a good amount of negative hype surrounding it, many people holding out to see which was a better buy are going to go for the 360 and pick up a PS3 later.
Sony will sell a lot of consoles but I don't think it will hit it's stride for two more years at least. People claiming the wii will dominate for the entire year are a bit overconfident in my opinion. Wii has had a great start but it looks to be a few months till another great title comes along for the wii. Reminds me of my gamecube droughts. I think hype on the wii will come down until SMB and Mario are released and than we'll see sales start to really pick back up again. I know I'll get a wii once SMB comes out and probably pick up Zelda at that time. I really think the 360 is going to pick up steam. My parents of all people just got one and my stepdad loves playing gears online with me and is addicted to COD3 and the arcade, literally would not stop raving about it and even my mom is addicted to xbox live arcade( she's a true gamer, used to whip me at the first mario back in the day ) and is going to buy me a camera so she can see me when we play uno, texas holdem, backgammon and spades online. She even figured out how to send me chat invites and has since been a pain in my ass :) My parents (aged 45 and 40) are gamers so they didn't mind spending 400 on a console, but I think the box will really appeal to a lot of people once the price drops a hundred dollars and there is a better arcade library, which is already very decent.
I think the 360 stands a really good chance at selling more consoles than either system next year. Besides not having Smash Bros, the 360 lineup has me stoked. Blue Dragon, Halo 3, John Woo:Stranglehold, BioShock, Mass Effect, Crackdown, GTA4, Assassins Creed, Lost Planet, Forza 2, ShadowRun, Lost Odessey, Fusion Frenzy 2, Armored Core 4, GRAW 2, and tons of arcade games. It's going to be a busy, fun and freaking expensive year for us 360 owners. Nintendo and PS3 are going to have to try and play catchup to the 360's library and at this rate MS might be able to put even more distance between it and it's competitors.
nick @ Jan 2nd 2007 11:37AM
Actually, vgcharts is not entirely accurate. If you consider they posted that the PS3 hit over 1.2 million units a couple of weeks ago, LONG before the end of the month and the final numbers were avaialble. In retrospect that number wasn't achieved until the END of December.
That would seem to indicate either they were speculating favorably well ahead of time or they're privy to information no one else has available, except Sony.
glitched @ Jan 2nd 2007 11:40AM
un-merry xmas for sony? no where do you even have the PS2 numbers, wasnt there a post here on joystiq about how the PS2 will be outselling next gen? yeah...
Also, according to the NPD, the 360 only sold 600k in the US in its first 2 months.
http://vgcharts.com/page3.html
Just a reminder that 2 million is for nov AND dec, wich means about 1.5million for December. Wich is better than ANY December for the original XBOX, but still not higher than the PS2's December numbers for the past 4 years
SONY4ever @ Jan 2nd 2007 11:41AM
great sales pitch jaysins! "you can play the 360 with your momma". like all 360 fangirls there momma boy titty babies. the PS3 is real men with big swinging harry sacks
jaysins @ Jan 2nd 2007 11:49AM
Big hairy sacks? Sounds SONY4ever has a fetish. Go play Resistance and.... oh yea that's right you don't have any other good games to play. Sucks to be you.
crono141 @ Jan 2nd 2007 11:49AM
somebody please ban SONY4ever
MaX PL @ Jan 2nd 2007 11:58AM
why the hell are people posting the sales of a 100 dollar handheld?
handhelds are not consoles. the DS Lite costs 4 times less than xbox 360 and 6 times less than PS3. just like the Wii, it is attracted by the consumers who dont want to spend alot or dont have the money to spend.
next year when the xbox 360 and ps3 both drop in price, i imagine wii sales to drop immensly.
bullet @ Jan 2nd 2007 11:59AM
#25 it sounds like YOUR the one crying like a baby girl.Maybe this whole competition between the 360 and ps3 isn't going quite the way you thought it would.Sounds to me like you thought the ps3 would leave the 360 in the dust at the starting gate when this whole race began.Maybe it's not the 360 or it's fans you obviously hate so much.Maybe your hatred is really at Sony for letting you down with production problems,bad press,and showing nothing but pre rendered video.Maybe the company that,in your mind,could do no wrong,did and the reality of that has left you with a bruised ego.It also sounds like your scared.Yes scared.2 years ago you wouldn't have believed things would have played out the way they have with the 360 doing as well as it's doing and the ps3 limping along with a broken wing.Or maybe your mad at yourself for trusting a product that lied to you,believing in a product that decieved you,and wanting a product that continues to be unavailable to you.I expect that if you respond to this,your comments will likeky be childish and immature with plenty of insults because your just a child yourself.Being so young and immature I guess maybe I was a little hard on you.It's o.k #25,I'm sure the ps4 will have a better chance at winning.Although Sony did say the ps3 will be around for the next ten years so you'll have to wait a while before you beat your chest and claim victory.Then again,if this console war thing is as important to you as it seems,you must not really have much of a life anyway.That's sad.Bye bye little one(pat on the head).You take care and have yourself a nice day.
Sam @ Jan 2nd 2007 12:00PM
I'd wager the PS2 was still the best selling console.
stiq of joy @ Jan 2nd 2007 12:00PM
Yeah the wii is hot now but each year it will fade and ps3 and xbox 360 will win in the long run. Sorry but i am thinking long term and wii doesnt have the hardware to survice in the more important long term. Remember many people think the wii has poor graphics now, imagine 3-4 years from now what they will think when they finally get hdtvs. Also xbox360 and ps3 are made for hardcore gamers wii is for chicks and people who arent typically into games. Wii will fade after 2-3 years, mark my words.
Zach @ Jan 2nd 2007 12:05PM
The PS3 doesn't have anything to justify spending $600. Call me when Metal Gear Solid 4 is released, then I'll buy one ONLY for that one game. The Wii and 360 are much superior.
Also, yes, please do ban SONY4ever. He's just a trolling fanboy.
Gianni Gotti @ Jan 4th 2007 4:24AM
Perhaps the elite staff at Joystiq have not heard of a product called the PLAYSTATION 2.
Let me help you novices out, within the next 3 months SONY will release a Wii controllet peripheral for the PS 2. Since the graphics of the Wii are not that different from the PS2 it will allow publishers to port their Wii products to the PS2, reinvigorating the market.
The rest is history.