NPD group claimed that Sony's PlayStation 4 is still the top console in the United States in terms of June sales. On the other hand, Microsoft released a statement that their company was able to double gaming hours through the Xbox One.
No statement has been further shared by Sony, while Microsoft on the other hand, chose to focus on the number of gaming hours amassed instead of sales produced. According to their statement, the Xbox One was able to reach a new milestone with 1.2 billion hours of log time. The company pointed out it is more than twice of its gaming hours compared to the same time last year, Game Spot reported.
Marketing Boss Mike Nichols added they have received a strong response from fans because of the much-awaited Xbox One S set for launching next month. The company was also able to successfully launch the Xbox Play Anywhere initiative where players would only be required to do a one-time purchase of their favorite games in order to play it on both Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs through Xbox Live.
Despite the good news for both tech companies, hardware sales in the US have been declining year per year. In reference from the same time in 2015, a 42 percent drop in sales was recorded. From around $313.1 million last June, sales declined to around $181.5 million this year.
NPD analyst Lian Callahan pointed out that the reason for the drop is a result of lesser unit sales and a decline in average prices. A drop in unit sales were observed after both Sony and Microsoft announced a new generation of console coming after the PS4 and Xbox One, which resulted to 32 percent drop in unit sales. On the other hand, a decline in average prices was also noted to be around 15 percent.
Meanwhile, "Overwatch" was the best-selling game in the US as of June 2016 according to a report by NPD group. For the first time, NPD's report included digital sales. Despite this, total industry sales are still down by 25 percent compared to June 2015, VG 24/7 reported.
For some details surrounding the upcoming PS4 Neo, watch the video clip below.