NPD: PlayStation 4 beat Xbox One for February console sales in the US, but gap is narrowing

Sony and Microsoft have both just shared results from NPD’s February US console roundup, but it looks like we’ve seen this story before. Just like in January, Sony declared its PlayStation 4 the top-selling console last month while Microsoft tried to tout its platforms in other ways.

NPD Group: PS4 is #1 again for the month, and cumulative sales, in the United States. Thanks for your support!

— PlayStation (@PlayStation) March 13, 2014

Microsoft shared a lot more data than Sony did. The company revealed it sold 258,000 units in the US, as well as overall Xbox platform numbers:

• Xbox One continues to see impressive software sales with an average of 2.75 games sold per console.
• Xbox One sold 772,000 games in February and Xbox 360 sold 2.46 million, totaling 48 percent of the total software market share (Xbox 360 and Xbox One combined).
• During the month of February, Xbox One and Xbox 360 both held five of the top 10 spots on the generation eight and generation seven console game lists in the US respectively:
• Xbox One top titles in the generation eight console game title list in the U.S. include: NBA 2K14, Battlefield 4, and Thief, Call of Duty: Ghosts, and Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare.
• Xbox 360 top titles in the generation seven console game title list in the U.S. include: NBA 2K14, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Fable Anniversary, Grand Theft Auto V, Minecraft, The LEGO Movie Videogame.

Yet Sony doesn’t have to share such data because it’s not the underdog. There is some good news for Microsoft though: the console sales gap shrunk in February compared to January. Since the Xbox One costs about $100 more, it beat PS4 hardware sales on a dollar basis.

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NPD said the PS4 the Xbox One sold over 90 percent of what the PS4 sold in terms of unit sales. Using Microsoft’s 258,000 number, Sony must have therefore sold no more than 287,000 units. The gap has been much larger in past months, but it’s still too early to tell which way the pendulum will swing.

With the release of Titanfall this week, the top two console positions might swap in March. If they don’t, Microsoft will need to do a lot more than promote an exclusive game to win this generation console war.

See also: PlayStation 4 review: Technical issues hold back Sony from greatness and Xbox One review: A multimedia extravaganza that also plays games