PS4 Tops June 2014 NPD Sales Chart, Despite Xbox One Price Cut

The NPD Group today released its monthly report for physical sales in the United States during June. Along with it, the respective console manufacturers have made their own announcements based on the report, and according to Sony, the PlayStation 4 was the top-selling system in the U.S. during June.

That’s an especially noteworthy accomplishment given the momentum the Xbox One gained last month. Just yesterday, Microsoft announced that Xbox One sales had more than doubled in June (compared with May) after its Kinect-less, $400 model went on sale. No specific figures were offered, and as a result, it was difficult to tell just how many systems the price drop helped to sell. The company announced earlier today it would lay off up to 18,000 people and shut down Xbox Entertainment Studios, but the majority of the layoffs have nothing to do with Xbox.

We now know, courtesy of a statement from Sony’s Guy Longworth, that the PS4 came out on top in the U.S. during June. Sony offered up a handful of other notes regarding the success of the PS4, including the fact that this marks the sixth month in a row that the PS4 was the top seller in the U.S. Additionally, PS4 was the top platform for physical software sales among the new generation of platforms.

The Wii U saw a sales bump in late May thanks to the launch of Mario Kart 8, and that continued into June. Wii U sales were up a whopping 233 percent over June 2013, and sales for it during the first six months of the year are up 48 percent as compared with the same period in 2013, according to Nintendo. As with Microsoft’s boast about the Xbox One sales increase, though, these increases unfortunately doesn’t provide us with a full picture without knowing specific sales figures.

3DS sales were up 55 percent over May, Nintendo reports, but the NPD Group’s Liam Callahan notes there was a year-over-year decline in portable hardware. (Sony made no mention of the PlayStation Vita in its statement today.) Despite that, the strength of the new consoles resulted in a 106 percent increase in hardware sales to $292.7 million, compared with $142 million last June. Looking at sales of consoles alone, sales were up by more than 200 percent versus last year.

It’s been some time since any of the three console manufacturers provided us with an update on sales for their respective systems. According to the most recent official announcements for worldwide sales figures, the PS4 has sold 7 million units (as of April 6); the Xbox One has sold 3 million units (as of December 31), with 5 million shipped to retailers; and the Wii U has sold 6.17 million units (as of March 31).

The NPD Group’s report also included the ten best-selling games in June at retail in the US. Watch Dogs was the top seller once again when combining all five of its platforms, while Mario Kart 8 was number one when looking at individual platforms.

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