The NPD figures for February are in and Sony has taken the crown once more. The PS4 was the best selling home console of the eighth generation runners, however they didn't quite manage to outsell Nintendo and the 3DS, which managed to take the top spot as the best selling gaming device of the month.
Venturebeat rolled out a very descriptive and detailed rundown of the NPD numbers for North America during the month of February in 2015.
Sony came out on top as the best selling home console, beating out both the Xbox One and the Nintendo Wii U. The company released a statement saying...
“Demand for PlayStation 4 remains incredibly strong in the U.S. as it was No. 1 in hardware-and-software sales in February, according to the latest NPD report,”“PS4 remains the cumulative leader in hardware sales with more than 20.2 million units sold to consumers worldwide demonstrating the fastest growth in PlayStation hardware history.”
The PS4 is outpacing the sales of the PSX, the PS2 and most cetainly the PS3 by a sizable margin, a lot of in due part to Microsoft sending many of their fans toward the Sony camp after the blunder that was the summer of DRM back in 2013. To Microsoft's credit, they have been on a road to recovery after Phil Spencer took over for Don Mattrick, opening up a doorway to success and even managing to break Sony's stranglehold on the North American monthly sales market with the PS4 by taking November and December of 2014 during the crucial holiday sales battle.
Microsoft released a statement through marketing manager Mike Nichols, stating...
“Xbox One’s fan base continues to grow with record February sales in the U.S. for Xbox One and 84 percent more consoles sold compared to January 2015,”
Well, that $350 bundle deal is really helping them shift product, eh?
I have that inkling that Microsoft could take March, 2015 against Sony, despite the PS4 being a steamrolling killer on the gaming hardware market. Why? Well, Microsoft recently dropped in a new three-months worth of Xbox Live Gold into a bundle package that contains Halo: The Master Chief Collection after 343 Industries released a patch to fully fix the game. You get those snazzy items along with an Xbox One for only $349.99. I mean, I have to be honest, it's going to be tough for a lot of fence-sitters to pass up that deal.
However, we shouldn't overlook the Big 'N' in all of this. The company made a major rebound during the latter half of 2014 after picking up momentum with the release of Mario Kart 8 during the spring of last year. While the Wii U wasn't much of a showboat during the February NPD chart, the Nintendo 3DS and New 3DS XL were.
The software charts The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D for the 3DS taking the top spot for February, beating out three new heavily hyped IPs, including Evolve, Dying Light and The Order 1886.
According to Venture Beat, Nintendo moved more than half a million units for The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D. The Big 'N' has still got it.
Of course, in the home console market they're still playing a fiddle or two behind Sony and the PlayStation 4, which has garnered enough momentum to show that it doesn't appear as if it'll be slowing down anytime soon, even when some of its AAA exclusives have been somewhat lackluster.
