NPD Group Releases December, 2007 U.S. Console Sales Numbers

 

NPD has released their console sales numbers for the U.S., for December, 2007.  The next-gen console sales for the month were:

XBox 360: 1,260,000 

PS3: 797,000

Wii: 1,350,000

Although the PS3 trailed the XBox 360 and Wii consoles for the month of December (in the U.S.), it did set a personal best for the console, selling 62% more systems than it had the previous December.

With the "game drought" coming to an end, as well as Blu-ray officially winning the HDM battle, the PS3 is in a much-improved position among the next-gen console race going forward.

Looking at all three systems by months after release, the PS3 has managed to sell over 3 million consoles in the U.S. in its first 14 months of availability.  Comparatively, the XBox 360 sold over 4 million consoles in its first 14 months, while the Wii trounced both other systems, selling an astounding 7 million consoles.

Obviously, the XBox 360 has been out considerably longer than the other consoles, so in the interests of fairness, here is a chart that shows the total sales of the consoles over their lifetimes.

The truly amazing thing is how quickly the Wii is overtaking the XBox 360's year-long head start.  Also, it's good to finally see the PS3 gaining some real traction in the U.S. market.

What will be interesting to watch is to see if Sony's gameplan pays off.  Many have criticized Sony for including a Blu-ray drive in the PS3, saying that they sacrificed their console business in order to ensure that Blu-ray succeeds.  Obviously, the Blu-ray drive in the PS3 added considerable cost to the system... especially early in its life.

Sony's plan, though, was to initially use the PS3 to sell Blu-ray -- which worked quite successfully.  Now that Blu-ray has won the format war, though, the plan is to reverse the situation.  Now... the Blu-ray playback capability built in to every PS3 console can help to sell the console, with the threat of HD DVD successfully crushed.

With the 40GB PS3 selling for only $50 more than the 20GB XBox 360 Premium, the added value of a built-in Blu-ray drive (as well as WiFi and free online play) makes the PS3 a far better value than Microsoft is currently offering.  Over the next several months, it seems likely we'll see significant growth in PS3 console sales, as Sony can refocus their efforts on pushing AAA game titles out for the system and attempting to get it into as many homes as possible.