PlayStation 4 Defeats Xbox One in January, Retains United States Lead

The team at Sony in charge of the PlayStation 4 home console says that the most recent NPD Group data shows that the device has managed to sell better than the Xbox One from Microsoft during January on the United States market.

Neither of the two companies have delivered any solid sales numbers for their devices, which is frustrating for gamers who want to know which of the two gaming platforms is the most interesting in the long term.

Sony is also saying that the PlayStation 4 is getting the overall sales lead in the US at the moment and that the official numbers are showing a total of 18.5 million units moved to gamers on all markets, who have also picked up no less than 81.8 million video games for it.

The results will be a disappointment for Microsoft, as the company chose to slash the price of the Xbox One on a long-term basis to 349 dollars (269 Euro) after the value managed to deliver some solid sales in the final two months of 2014.

Nintendo has not offered any comment on sales of the Wii U home console or the 3DS handheld.

Total industry sales went down by 5 percent overall when compared to the same period of 2014, to a value of 662.1 million dollars (501 million Euro).

Hardware sales recorded the biggest decline, at 23%, but that was to be expected given that the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 are no longer new on the market.

The Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 have also seen a decline of 35 percent in their own sales numbers.

2015 is an important year for game hardware

So far, both the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 have managed to outpace their older cousins in terms of sales, but there are signs that 2015 will be a more difficult year for these two devices.

Microsoft and Sony need to continue to deliver solid video game experiences and other entertainment content in order to attract new users.

At the same time, there’s pressure to implement price cuts in order to expand the install base.

Microsoft has already made its own device cheaper, but so far Sony seems determined to keep the same price for its PS4 as it had when it was first launched.