Sony won the battle of Black Friday in the UK – but only just. According to MCV, the PlayStation 4 moved 139,000 consoles between 22nd November and 28th November, a fraction more than the Xbox One which mustered 134,000 units. It's good news for both consoles, as new-gen hardware really starts to cement itself in British homes.
The Japanese giant will be especially satisfied with the result, as these numbers represent an impressive year-on-year increase of almost 29 per cent. However, while it's positive for the PS4 and Xbox One, it's worth noting that the Wii U was forced to share just 42,000 hardware sales with both handhelds and last-gen consoles. Eeek.
[source mcvuk.com]
Comments 15
Pretty much to be expected the only region that is an unknown is North America. The Xbox One took October but didn't dominate it the way some might have expected considering Halo 5 was out and that series had always done extremely well here. MS did have Tomb Raider and the Fallout 4 deal for November but all the other big marketing deals were with PlayStation so it'll be interesting to see if October was just a blip on the radar or if MS managed to make it two months in a row. I've read reports that MS won Black Friday but ready others that would suggest Sony won. That one day will probably be what decides the month and right now it's tough to find consistent reports. Hell I read some comments on another website where people thought based on what Target reported that it's possible Wii U could win November.
@Gamer83 Yeah, sounds like it's been really close this year.
I'm actually surprised Xbox managed to stay so close behind PS4, which is suprising in itself. This is not about specs, sales or which system is best, but with MS going all in this fall, I can't shake the feeling they won't be content and it's quite the feat that PS outsold them when you forget about Xbox's bad start.
Although the PS4 was formally priced competitive, we saw retailers giving huge discounts on One bundles and they offered incredible value for money. I send lots of consoles back home because of the huge price difference to help people out a bit and I could offer a 1tb One with both TRs, GoW ultimate, Rare Replay, Forza AND Halo for just €400. For exactly the same price you could get a 1tb PS4 with UC and God of War, games people already played because almost no one had a 360 in SA. People straight up asked me what to do and I leaned towards the One purely because it offered most value for money, but in the end I had to buy 3 PS4s for every One.
And some of these people who chose the €379 PS4 instead of the €309 Xbox have to work a full week to earn back what they could have saved...literally. The force is strong apparently and I sometimes just don't get it. I like the PS4, but even the Sony execs are looking at the sales in disbelief.
I'm off to do some more downloading and installing; buying and shipping of the consoles isn't the worst part, installing and updating games and firmware is... Damn our internet!
Oh and for who likes to know: I bought one Wii U to send back home... our gamepad broke down
There were good deals across the board in NA. The most interesting numbers will be overall industry spending.
@Neolit
Bought a Wii U last year and after being disappointed by everything other than Super Mario 3D World I traded it for an Xbox One to compliment the PS4 and haven't regretted the decision.
Whilst the PS4 is certainly pulling ahead in terms of sales, the XB1 is still selling better than both the XB360 and PS3 did during their first 2 years. Gamers have long memories too and we know the XB1 didn't get off to the best of starts although most of the issues have been removed. Americans paranoia over Kinect and having a camera in their living room, DRM and of course the whole resolution row too.Despite this its still sold well - just not as well as the PS4.
There is no way its outsold the PS4 globally this year as the PS4 has sold more units on more months. Halo is not the 'system seller' it once was either - certainly not anywhere near as good as Bungies Halo. A lot of the long term fans are not impressed by the latest so I was not surprised to see it drop out of the top 10 so quickly and not contribute significantly to XB1 sales. I wouldn't be surprised if Backwards Compatibility and Quantum Break have a bigger impact.
All these numbers show me is that my favourite form of entertainment is going from strength to strength and that gaming on console is definitely here to stay for the next few years at least.
Not a surprise, the Wii U didn't receive any huge discount on black friday. I'm confident that if the system dropped to below 200 quids here in UK, it would be at least half the amount of PS4 sold, if not more. Unfortunately the best bundle discount we got was Mario Kart and Splatoon for 219 on Amazon (same as XB1 and almost PS4
@Gamer83 Funny enough I had different experience - bought PS4 when my Wii U gamepad broke and had regretted the decision ever since. Sold the PS4 and looking for a good bargain on Wii U now, it's truly an amazing console, especially for coach co-op with your mates
Nintendo have done an absolutely terrible job with Wii U in the UK and it is reflected in the sales numbers.
Well, with the Wii U situation in the UK, look at it this way: I was probably going to buy one if the price fell below £200. The fact it still hasn't is maddening, at least to me.
@Dodoo
Haven't done much better in North America to be brutally honest. Reggie is lucky to work for such a forgiving company because he and his team did absolutely nothing to help the console over here.
@Gamer83
well, I would say Reggie and his team have done more to hurt the Wii U than to help it.
@Utena-mobile @Gamer83 Yeah it's a sad state of affairs. They need to get some decent execs like they had back in the day with Yamauchi and Howard Lincoln. People that actually made a difference and didn't just sugar coat everything.
Well done SONY for taking on MS at last at Xmas time. And more incredible is that even SONY PS USA took on MS this year to for once! Am I shocked, YEP
I predicted xbone might steal it because I know for a fact that the black ops bundles were selling like crazy. Almost eh.
@Dodoo
Howard Lincoln is one of the most underrated workers Nintendo ever had. Even with an image problem and third parties jumping ship as quick as possible Nintendo of America at least managed to bring back most of its userbase each gen, it was the dwindling numbers in Japan that had hurt the N64 and GC more than anything. Reggie, imo, has been awful but Nintendo fanboys love him because of that 'I kick a$$ and take names' nonsense at his first E3 appearance. The Wii's success can't even be credited to him. It's the guy currently taking over Iwata who launched the console in NA. I don't like to see anybody lose their job, so I wouldn't mind if NoA kept Reggie around but bring in somebody else to run the show along with him who is much more competent.
@Gamer83 Yeah totally agree with you.
Reggie should probably be given a PR role within NoA as he's great on the front line with his PR spin. Though like you say he's a favourite with the fans as he's likeable but the fans then seem overlook the fact he's bad at his job because of that.
Maybe they should hire us to sort them out! lol
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