Following the console performing considerably well during Black Friday, Microsoft's Xbox 360 has topped the U.S. game hardware market in November for the umpteenth time.
It sold 1.26 million Xbox 360 units in November, making it the top-selling console in the market for the 23rd consecutive month.
Microsoft's achievement, however, is somewhat surprising; Nintendo launched its next-generation console in the form of the Wii U, but the former did manage to sell 960,000 units during the week of Black Friday. The Wii U also launched around halfway through the month, giving the console fewer days to accumulate sales.
Nintendo announced that its total hardware sales during the month, which includes the Wii U, Wii, 3DS and DS, reached 1.75 million. It sold 910,000 units between its DS and 3DS, as well as 845,000 console units. The Wii U in particular sold more than 425,000 units last month.
Sony refused to reveal hardware figures for the month. Total hardware sales reached $838.9 million, representing a 13 percent decline versus the $962.2 million generated during the same period in 2011.
As for the gaming software side, sales decreased by 11 percent to $1.43 billion during November. Accessory sales also suffered a similar fate, dropping by 8 percent for total sales of $280.9 million. Ultimately, the gaming industry accumulated $2.55 billion in sales last month, which is a 11 percent drop when compared to the $2.87 billion the market generated during the same period last year.
"It's important to compare this month's results to November 2005, which was the last time the industry began to transition between console generations with the launch of a new platform," NPD analyst Liam Callahan said. "Comparing this month's results to November 2005, retail video games sales are nearly twice as big as they were then (+97%). This really demonstrates the long-term health of retail sales even as many platforms are quite late in their lifecycles.
"Despite an overall retail video game decline of 11 percent, November had the smallest year-over-year decrease we have seen for dollar and unit sales so far this year," he added. "This is a sign of momentum going into the December holiday period."
