PS4 Bestselling Console In April, But Titanfall Still Bestselling Game

[Steven Bogos]

PS4 Bestselling Console In April, But Titanfall Still Bestselling Game

The PS4 has now been the top selling console for four straight months.

The NPD numbers for April are in, and they again show Sony's PlayStation 4 at the top. However, it looks like all those PS4 owners are neglecting to buy games for their system, as the best selling game was still the Microsoft-exclusive Titanfall. Total industry sales climbed 17 percent to $580.3 million, in large part thanks to the continued momentum of next-gen hardware - hardware sales jumped 76 percent to $192.8 million while accessories also increased 21 percent to $159.7 million.

While Sony hasn't revealed it's PS4 sale figures, Microsoft stated that it sold 115,000 units in April, and when you put that next to the Xbox 360, which managed to move 71,000 units, you can imagine Sony's machine selling considerably higher. Microsoft did however, stress that Xbox One has outpaced Xbox 360 sales by 76 percent in the first six months on the market.

As for games, closing in on Titanfall's heels was the multiplatform Call of Duty: Ghosts, followed by NBA 2K14 and Minecraft for the Xbox 360 - the only single-platform-exclusive title in the top ten.

Also, despite all the doom and gloom constantly foreshadowing Nintendo's Wii U, NPD analyst Liam Callahan announced that " Wii U software sales were up over last year by over 80 percent," adding "Life to date, sales of PS4 and Xbox One hardware have more than doubled the combined sales of PS3 and 360 hardware through their first six months of sales."

So the general trend is that people are buying more games consoles and less games, or, as the NPD only tracks physical copies of games bought in actual brick-and-mortar stores, people are simply buying more of their games online...

Source: Gamesindustry.biz [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-05-15-titanfall-ps4-drive-us-game-sales-up-17-percent-in-april-npd]

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[Rellik San]

Wait... which game are they saying is a platform exclusive, because none of those mentioned to my knowledge are, unless we're counting Minecraft 360 as a seperate entity entirely. :S

Either that or MS are cheating by lumping in combined sales of XOne and PC by saying "Microsoft exclusive" which as you need Windows to run Titanfall PC could be the case.

 

[Ravesy]

So the general trend is that people are buying more games consoles and less games, or, as the NPD only tracks physical copies of games bought in actual brick-and-mortar stores, people are simply buying more of their games online...

Which is exactly the case, meaning all of the comparisons are completely pointless :/

 

[Rozalia1]

Not surprised when you put that much hype behind something.

Wait... which game are they saying is a platform exclusive, because none of those mentioned to my knowledge are, unless we're counting Minecraft 360 as a seperate entity entirely. :S

Either that or MS are cheating by lumping in combined sales of XOne and PC by saying "Microsoft exclusive" which as you need Windows to run Titanfall PC could be the case.

So you think Microsoft might be going down the SDF route of releasing their sales figures as the "Microsoft family"

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

The better test will be when more quality games start coming out. It's no secret that more people think the PS4 a superior machine to the XBone, but when more appealing games come out, either digitally or physically, I believe we'll see where gamers will go and stay for the current generation.

 

[Rellik San]

Not surprised when you put that much hype behind something.

Wait... which game are they saying is a platform exclusive, because none of those mentioned to my knowledge are, unless we're counting Minecraft 360 as a seperate entity entirely. :S

Either that or MS are cheating by lumping in combined sales of XOne and PC by saying "Microsoft exclusive" which as you need Windows to run Titanfall PC could be the case.

So you think Microsoft might be going down the SDF route of releasing their sales figures as the "Microsoft family"

Sounds like something they'd do, after all they want full integration of your PC, tablet, phone and console experience, so just calling it the Microsoft Platform is exactly the kind of figure inflating trick these companies like to pull.

 

[Kahani]

Microsoft did however, stress that Xbox One has outpaced Xbox 360 sales by 76 percent in the first six months on the market.

Really? That's seriously the best they could think of to say? When you find yourself needing to stress the fact that your new system is selling a little bit better than an obsolete decade-old one, that's probably a sign things aren't going so well.

 

[BrotherRool]

Microsoft did however, stress that Xbox One has outpaced Xbox 360 sales by 76 percent in the first six months on the market.

Really? That's seriously the best they could think of to say? When you find yourself needing to stress the fact that your new system is selling a little bit better than an obsolete decade-old one, that's probably a sign things aren't going so well.

He means that the Xbox One has sold 76 percent better than the 360 did at the same time of it's life, which is fairly decent, except in comparison to how well the PS4 is selling.

 

[Mothhive]

I don't think Titanfall being the best selling game indicates that PS4 owners are neglecting to buy games, it's simply down to the fact that Titanfall is on Xbone, Xbox 360 and PC, which is inflating the numbers. I'm sure that if the Xbone version sales alone were higher than the sales for any PS4 game, we would have heard about that instead.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

For fuck sake, TitanFall is not an exclusive title. It's just not on Sony's consoles. It's on 3 systems!

 

[J Tyran]

I don't think Titanfall being the best selling game indicates that PS4 owners are neglecting to buy games, it's simply down to the fact that Titanfall is on Xbone, Xbox 360 and PC, which is inflating the numbers. I'm sure that if the Xbone version sales alone were higher than the sales for any PS4 game, we would have heard about that instead.

Microsoft are generally doing very well on software all together at the moment, in terms of consoles Microsoft are selling more games on the Xbox 360 & Xbone than Sony are with the PSV, PS3 & and PS4 and Nintendo with the Wii, Wii U and 3DS all added together and have claimed 53% [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-05-16-ps4-and-xbox-one-double-sales-of-predecessors-during-first-six-months-in-us] of software sales which has gone up from 48% of software sales earlier this year. They are averaging three games per Xbone sold now which is up from 2.7 earlier this year, the PS4 was selling 2.4 games per console but if there are any updated averages I couldn't find them so that could easily be out of date now. Those figures might be retail only but for the Luddite console gamers that like to clutch their plastic disks they are still very relevant and within a margin of error still fairly representative, if we where talking about the PC I would agree with those that are trying to dismiss them but console owners believe the disk gives them some kind of security and others like to trade games in.

Most reports back your opinion up and the general consensus on places like Forbes and others is that the high Titanfall sales are being driven by the "more accessible" Xbox 360 rather than by the Xbone.

 

[tdylan]

I don't think Titanfall being the best selling game indicates that PS4 owners are neglecting to buy games, it's simply down to the fact that Titanfall is on Xbone, Xbox 360 and PC, which is inflating the numbers. I'm sure that if the Xbone version sales alone were higher than the sales for any PS4 game, we would have heard about that instead.

Agreed. The first thing that came to mind as I read the article was "Are we lumping the sale of Titanfall across all platforms together?" If so, I would liken it to people saying "the PS4 is only outselling the XBONE due to being available in more markets." That argument can be made here: "Titanfall is (likely) outselling PS4 games due to being available on more consoles." Including the 360 that MS themselves said that customers are "still satisfied with," and as a result are slower to move on from.

 

[wolfehound22]

The tough thing about NPD numbers now a days, is they only follow physical media, so really it isn't that great of an indicator for software. Hardware yes, but so much software is bought digitally now, that is's hard to say how great some games really did.

 

[Trishbot]

It's been confirmed Infamous: Second Son outsold Titanfall on Xbox One.

Titanfall only leads because they grouped ALL versions of the game together, of which the 360 version sold very well (more so than the Xbox One version did as well).

PS4 still had the best-selling system AND the best-selling "next-gen" game, according to sources. It's just that last month, more people were still buying the "last-gen" versions of these games (and lots and lots of LEGO games).

 

[Baresark]

For fuck sake, TitanFall is not an exclusive title. It's just not on Sony's consoles. It's on 3 systems!

Thank you, HOLY GOD! These people are really bad at looking at information. "Titanfall is on 3 systems, but they say it's only one, so I guess they are right". There is not a single platform game on that list!

 

[Rellik San]

For fuck sake, TitanFall is not an exclusive title. It's just not on Sony's consoles. It's on 3 systems!

Thank you, HOLY GOD! These people are really bad at looking at information. "Titanfall is on 3 systems, but they say it's only one, so I guess they are right". There is not a single platform game on that list!

As some of us have been saying though, are they pulling a naughty move by lumping the XBoxes (XBoxi? XBoxs? XBox?) and Windows PC simply as "Microsoft Platform"?

 

[Philip Kendall]

I don't think Titanfall being the best selling game indicates that PS4 owners are neglecting to buy games, it's simply down to the fact that Titanfall is on Xbone, Xbox 360 and PC, which is inflating the numbers. I'm sure that if the Xbone version sales alone were higher than the sales for any PS4 game, we would have heard about that instead.

Yup. It's now been confirmed that Infamous sold more copies than Titanfall on XB1. Clearly, Titanfall is the best-selling game across all platforms - no one could deny that, and it deserves the number one spot - but if we're comparing the two consoles, which I think is the point of all Sony and Microsoft's cock-showing and number boasts, then Titanfall being in the top spot doesn't actually mean anything.

For fuck sake, TitanFall is not an exclusive title. It's just not on Sony's consoles. It's on 3 systems!

Thank you, HOLY GOD! These people are really bad at looking at information. "Titanfall is on 3 systems, but they say it's only one, so I guess they are right". There is not a single platform game on that list!

As some of us have been saying though, are they pulling a naughty move by lumping the XBoxes (XBoxi? XBoxs? XBox?) and Windows PC simply as "Microsoft Platform"?

It's not naghty since they're stating facts - Titanfall is the best selling game. If we're comparing Xbox One and PS4 hardware sales, though, then pointing to Titanfall in the number one slot as some indication that Xbox One is selling more software (it's not) is kind of a red herring. Such is PR, eh?

 

[Baresark]

For fuck sake, TitanFall is not an exclusive title. It's just not on Sony's consoles. It's on 3 systems!

Thank you, HOLY GOD! These people are really bad at looking at information. "Titanfall is on 3 systems, but they say it's only one, so I guess they are right". There is not a single platform game on that list!

As some of us have been saying though, are they pulling a naughty move by lumping the XBoxes (XBoxi? XBoxs? XBox?) and Windows PC simply as "Microsoft Platform"?

Judging by the evidence, I would say that they are. It's almost laughable since MS have been doing their absolute best to kill PC gaming for the past almost 10 years.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Being that Titanfall is on PC as well, most we can take from this is XB1 is selling better than 360, which is great. I think they will sell loads more now kinect is gone and sold separately. After E3 we will get a better idea game wise whether its worth getting. I remember the amount of hatred Sony got for removing backward compatibility from the PS3, but after people got over it the PS3 did really well sales wise.

Figures i would like to see is the month when the XB1 is for sale in all territories, then we can compare that to PS4s first month sales in all territories. Its a fairer comparison than comparing sales at the moment. I am expecting PS4 will be ahead, but im sure the gap would be a lot thinner.

 

[SeventhSigil]

This is probably nitpicky as all hell, but I wanted to point out an inconsistency I found. Well, not an inconsistency, more like an omission. I noticed that Microsoft was always careful to report its comparisons to the Xbox 360 in an overall sense, i.e 'We've sold much better three months in than the 360 did at this point!' But I could never really find a direct comparison on a month by month basis. Or even a quarterly basis. Always was overall sales. So I did some digging, and took a look at the Xbox 360 sales wiki. Assuming its accuracy of course, I found the following; (keep in mind I can't say for sure whether the numbers in the wiki reflect units shipped or sold, so I'm going to be comparison them to Xbox One units shipped, just to be safe, so consider the following a best case scenario.)

In the second quarter, or in other words it's first-quarter out on market, measured until the end of December, the Xbox 360 moved 1.5 million consoles. This is obviously far, FAR less than the 3.9 million Xbox Ones moved.

However, in its subsequent quarter on the market, the Xbox 360 moved 1.7 million. The Xbox One by comparison moved 1.2.

This means that, in truth, the Xbox One might actually be performing worse than its predecessor as the months go on, and the only reason it's coming out as ahead is that it received a massive lead on it's very first opening quarter.

It should be noted, that the Xbox 360 sold 1.8 million units on the quarter designated to end on June 30. Considering the United States is its strongest market, and unless of course the Xbox One sells significantly more units either the previous month or the next, it looks like the Xbox One might be on track to underperform compared to the 360 this quarter as well.

This more than the competition with PlayStation might explain Microsoft's sudden concession on the Kinect free version, the pay wall, so on and so forth. Every month and every quarter that the Xbox One under performs compared to the Xbox 360, that lead that they established is going to shrink further and further. If the gap in sales continued at roughly the same rate as it did the second-quarter, that lead might not even last until the end of the summer. (EDITED: Math blargh; not last until the beginning of the holiday season is more accurate.)


(A little addendum here being that obviously there could be other factors at work. I can't say for sure which markets the Xbox 360 released in compared to the Xbox one, or for that matter how successful those markets ended up being, as either more markets for the 360 could have accounted for the boost in sales, or not. For that matter, the numbers for the 360 might actually be unit sold to the customer, meaning the gap would be even wider than as stated above. But nonetheless, it's stuff like this that makes me wonder whether when Microsoft says that they are 76% above the units of their predecessor, if they're simply speaking of the United States, or if they're using the overall numbers that are somewhat padded by early success.)