Xbox One outsells PS4 four months in a row; Top console in October 2016

The Xbox One has once again outperformed the PlayStation 4 in sales. The trend started after the Xbox One S officially went on sale in July. Sales continued to stay high in August and maintained once more in September.

October has seen the Xbox One reign supreme once more, making it the top-selling console in brick and mortar stores – according to The NPD Group. After the PlayStation 4 held the market down for so long, it's nice to see a switch.

“Unit sales for the Xbox One brand of hardware grew by 8 percent compared to last October,” said NPD analyst Sam Naji. “Average pricing for the Xbox One hardware fell by 17 percent due primarily to the release of the lower-priced 500GB Xbox One S Minecraft Bundle.”

While the average best-selling console was the Xbox brand, the PS4 Slim Uncharted 4 bundle did fairly well in sales. “The PS4 Slim 500 GB Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End bundle was the month’s best-selling hardware across the category, accounting for 17 percent of total hardware units sold in the month,” said Naji.

This brings hope for the PlayStation 4 Pro's early November release to turn over the four-month-long Xbox reign over sales.

Last but not least, people are still buying the 3DS – so there's that (it's a great handheld, I can see why).

“The 3DS experienced its fifth straight month of year-on-year growth,” said Naji. “Both unit sales and consumer spending for October grew 12 percent as average pricing was flat year on year.  It is likely that continued consumer interest in the Pokémon franchise and Monster Hunter: Generations has driven this growth.”

[VentureBeat]