PS4 becomes June’s best-selling next-gen console as software sales slide

For six months in a row, Sony’s PS4 has been the best-selling next-generation console in the U.S., reads a self-congratulatory tweet from the official PlayStation twitter account. Despite Xbox One sales “more than doubling” in June, the PS4 still beats Microsoft’s console in hardware sales. This tweet comes in hot-on-the-heels of the latest NDP Group report, says Venturebeat.

Breaking news: PS4 is #1 top-selling US next-gen console in June, 6th month in a row. Thanks for your support! <3 pic.twitter.com/r5bTKg4wYf

— PlayStation (@PlayStation) July 17, 2014

No specific numbers have been mentioned yet, but Sony is still championing itself as king of the consoles. But according to the report, everyone’s a winner. “Combined sales of Xbox One and PS4 are over 80 percent higher than the combined totals for Xbox 360 and PS3 – an indication of the strength of the start of this new console generation,” says NDP Group.

Gamers in the US threw US$736.4-million at console hardware in June. While sales of the Xbox One, Ps4 and surprisingly, even the Wii U have boomed, portable console sales haven’t. “The strong sales performance of console hardware helped to offset the declines seen in portable hardware,” continues the report. Actual games though, haven’t performed as well as their console brethren.

“Only” US$286.8-million are what retail games sales made in the month of June, which is down three percent from 2013. It doesn’t help that there are few quality triple-AAA titles. Leading the software sales are Watchdogs, Mario Kart 8, Minecraft and UFC, none of which are PS4 exclusives.

As VentureBeat points out, the NDP report leaves out all non-retail sales like mobile, digital, and second-hand games. Despite this, these reports provide enough information for companies like Microsoft and Sony to sling witty barbs and insults whenever one or the others reaches a critical sales milestone.

Image by EvelynGiggles via Flickr