The NPD Group has released the US hardware and software sales figures for the month of March, which give us a few noteworthy insights.
Perhaps most significant is that Sony's PlayStation 4 outsold the Xbox One for the month of March. Microsoft will likely be disappointed with this news due to the belief that the release of Titanfall was expected to drive hardware purchases.
"In March 2014, Sony's PS4 led hardware sales for the third month in a row," said Liam Callahan, a video game analyst for NPD. Sony did not disclose specific sales numbers for March alone, while Microsoft reported selling 311,000 units last month.
Sony announced earlier this week that the PlayStation 4 had reached 7 million units sold, while Microsoft reports that it has shipped 5 million Xbox One units. It's worth noting that Microsoft chose to supply the number of Xbox One units shipped rather than the amount sold to consumers--it's possible there is a portion of that stock still at retailers and not in the hands of customers. I wouldn't expect there to be millions of unsold units or another scenario that drastic, but the exact number sold to consumers may have been slightly less impressive than the amount shipped.
1.4 million Xbox One games were bought in March, which brings the attach rate up to 2.9 per console owner. If Titanfall didn't move as many consoles as hoped, it at least sold plenty of copies itself. The software rankings put the online shooter on top of any other games from March 3 to April 5:
- Titanfall (XBO, PC)
- inFAMOUS Second Son (PS4)
- South Park: The Stick Of Truth (360, PS3, PC)
- Call Of Duty: Ghosts (360, PS4, PS3, XBO, NWU, PC)
- Dark Souls II (PS3, 360)
- Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (PS4, XBO, PS3, 360)
- NBA 2K14 (360, PS4, PS3, XBO, PC)
- Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster (PS3, PSV)
- The LEGO Movie Videogame (360, PS3, 3DS, NWU, XBO, PS4, PSV)
- Minecraft (360)
Software sales for the month totaled $432 million, while hardware sales increased 3% since March 2013 to reach $1.025 billion.
