Putting the speculation to rest, Sony Computer Entertainment of America has announced that PS4 "won the month of September." This marks the ninth consecutive month Sony's PS4 has outsold Microsoft's Xbox One in the United States. What's more, PS4 sales in September nearly tripled that of August's sales.
"Thanks to the support from fans and the overwhelming popularity of the limited-edition Destiny PS4 bundle, PlayStation 4 won the month of September, nearly tripling August sales," Sony highlighted from the September NPD report.
In addition to PS4 sales, PlayStation also led the month for next-gen software, including selling the most copies of Madden NFL 15, NHL 15, and FIFA 15. Activision's Destiny was also a huge success for PlayStation, as its launch helped pave the way for September 2014 to become the "biggest month ever" for PlayStation Store revenue in the Americas.
Destiny broke PSN sales records across several categories, including pre-orders, day-one sales, and week-one sales. Even now, one month after the game's release, Destiny remains the most-played title on PS4 with 125 hours of gameplay. According to Activision's internal estimates, the PS4 is the number one platform worldwide for Destiny "based on units sold through as of October 4, 2014."
Sony also shared some key milestones for Destiny on PlayStation:
- Destiny is currently the most-played PS4 game, with total gameplay hours 5X higher than the second most-played title
- Destiny is #1 across pre-order sales, day one sales, week one sales, and month one sales on PS Store
- Social sharing is hugely popular among Destiny players, with 450,000 hours of live gameplay broadcasted via the PS4 system’s SHARE functionality
- New PlayStation Plus memberships increased 115 percent from the week prior to Destiny’s launch
- The limited-edition Destiny PS4 bundle helped drive PS4 hardware sales to its biggest month in 2014
“Thanks to the PlayStation Nation for an amazing launch and first month with Destiny. Fans are diving deep into the game and playing an incredible amount of Destiny every day, with PlayStation 4 as the leading platform,” said Tony Hsu, vice president of product management at Activision. “We are excited that players worldwide are embracing the next generation of gaming and are also taking advantage of the free digital upgrade program. Both Activision and the talented team at Bungie are listening carefully to consumer feedback and working on evolving the game, with multiple updates since launch, and we’re excited to see Destiny continue to develop and grow over time.”
Guess Michael Pachter was wrong in his estimate. One has to wonder now, if Xbox One can't topple PS4 by giving away free games, what can Microsoft do to beat Sony at this point?
