The NPDs for December 2015 have just been released and it didn’t come with many surprises. As expected, the PlayStation 4 beat out the Xbox One as the top selling console in America. It also saw the top three titles of November continue holding on to their spots.
New games sold at U.S retailers made $3.22 billion in December. This is down 1% from the $3.26 billion made in December of 2014. Both hardware and software sales were down, but this can be attributed to the dwindling sales of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Accessories like Amiibo, Skylanders, Lego Dimensions, and such, grew by 10 percent.
“December 2015 was the best month on record for PS4 and Xbox One, and the second-best for the Wii U in terms of new physical software unit sales,” said NPD analyst, Liam Callahan. “This also meant that it was the best month of total eighth generation new physical software sales.”
Below are the sales charts for December 2015 and for 2015 overall. Keep in mind that the NPD group only tracks sales made at retail stores in America. Digital sales, and those made outside of the U.S.A. are not tracked.
December 2015 software sales:
01. Call of Duty: Black Ops III (Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC)
02. Star Wars: Battlefront (Xbox One, PS4, PC)
03. Fallout 4 (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
04. Madden NFL 16 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
05. NBA 2K16 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
06. Grand Theft Auto V (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3, PC)
07. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege (Xbox One, PS4, PC)
08. Minecraft (360, Xbox One, PS4, PS3)
09. Minecraft: Story Mode: A Telltale Game Series (360, Xbox One, PS4, PS3)
10. FIFA 16 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
2015 software sales:
01. Call of Duty: Black Ops III (Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC)
02. Madden NFL 16 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
03. Fallout 4 (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
04. Star Wars: Battlefront (Xbox One, PS4, PC)
05. Grand Theft Auto V (PS4, Xbox One) 360, PS3, PC)
06. NBA 2K16 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
07. Minecraft (360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4)
08. FIFA 16 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
09. Mortal Kombat X (PS4, Xbox One)
10. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC)
As usual, the PlayStation 4 outsold the Xbox One and the Wii U. As we already know, Sony managed to sell 5.7 million PS4s during the holiday season, though some of November accounts for that number as well. We don’t know how much Microsoft or Nintendo’s consoles sold during December, but we do at least know that the Xbox One has sold roughly 18 million units world wide.
“After 26 months of sales, the combined cumulative sales of Xbox One and PS4 exceeds the 26 month total of the PS3 and Xbox 360 by 47 percent,” said Callahan. “The lead from the prior generation has expanded due to the strong PS4 and Xbox One 2015 holiday, going from 38 percent by the end of October, growing to 47 percent by the end of November, and maintaining 47 percent higher sales by the end of December.”
Overall it was a solid year for the industry. With many long-awaited titles finally seeing release in 2016, it will be interesting to see how things turn out this year. We’ll also see if the current-gen consoles continue to outsell their previous-gen counterparts. If this upward trend continues, this could very well be the most successful console-generation in recent history.
