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.]
