Microsoft beat Sony in U.S. console sales in August thanks to Xbox One S

Sales of the Xbox One S helped Microsoft to beat Sony's PlayStation 4 in U.S. hardware console sales in August, according to data from the research firm the NPD Group. Microsoft officially launched the new version of the console in the same month.
As usual, neither Microsoft nor the NPD Group revealed specific unit sales for the Xbox One or Xbox One S, which were apparently both grouped together. The Xbox One S has a smaller design than the standard Xbox One, and can support streaming 4K video and UHD Blu-ray discs. Engadget got a statement from Xbox's Marketing head Mike Nichols, who also took a shot at the lack of a UHD Blu-ray player in the upcoming PlayStation 4 Pro.
"Thanks to our fans and their excitement for new Xbox One games and the recently launched Xbox One S, which is the only console available this holiday with built-in UHD 4K Blu-ray, 4K video streaming and HDR for video and gaming, Xbox One was the best-selling console in the U.S. in August, according to NPD Group."
This is the second month in a row that Microsoft's Xbox One consoles beat Sony's PlayStation 4 in U.S. sales.
Windows Central Newsletter
Get the best of Windows Central in your inbox, every day!
-
Didn't think we were counting anymore?
Different rules when we are winning? -
A third party group did it, not Microsoft.
-
Don't use 'we'. Also, we have reported at least 7 times where Sony beat Microsoft, so your premise looks silly.
-
Have had a range of Xbox's, including a new 2TB S, for over 15 years so as a long time fan I'm using "we" and was stating an observation.
So perhaps next time you could tone down the rhetoric.
Fire, ready, aim? -
I think you're reading too much into Daniel's rebutal. I don't see the aggression. As for, "stating your observation".......me thinks you didn't see right :)
-
hey Daniel, now that both the PS 4 slim and the Xbox one s are out. Would it be possible to have a showdown/comparison between the two? both are similarly priced as well.
-
Don't tell us which words to use or not. "We" use "we" whenever "we" like. No reason to switch to defensive mode either. It's crystal clear who he is referring to with "we" (.. n o t y o u ... ). I like your work btw. Have a very nice day!
-
Ok
-
That gave me a good chuckle :)
-
Did you read the part where MS did not include any numbers? So yeah, they are not counting even though they are winning. So the question is.... What crawled up your butt and died?
-
When we don't win, nothing is said. When we do, its reported.
Just making an observation, read into that what you will.
Brown nose?? -
Having a bad day, do we? Daniel just stated that multiple reports have been made here in which PS4 was reported sales winner. Just quit the whining already.
-
Having a good day and no one is whining ffs.
What is it with u blokes wanting to lick the balls of the journos? -
They get more upvotes if they join in against someone Daniel has "burnt" I'm with you in the Brown nosing bit, but I also love beating PlayStation in imaginary wars, so I'm glad this was counted ha
-
I'm hearing you, and I love any win over Sony as well
-
What is with you idiots that can't admit when you're wrong?
-
Seriously, what's wrong with you? lol. If that's your "observation" then you need glassess. NPD is reported regardless of winning/losing. Seems like you're cherry picking to suit your narrative.
-
Lol
I would hate to be a Sony fanboy posting here when an xbox fan gets pitchforked for a basic and truthful observation.
U bi tches are hilarious. -
There's nothing truthful about your observation. Quite frankly they should ban your account. Seems like you can't have a conversation without resorting to profanity.
-
hahaha, cry me a river
-
Good thing your not a mod. Since when is profanity a ban worthy offence? What are you, a child? If you feel s/he's trolling ignore him. No need to continue engaging.
-
Look at his previous comments. For your information there is a profanity filter for a reason. And he circumvented one of them by including spaces. I'm not sure about here, but in other forums trolling and insulting other members of the community with profanity (for no reason at all) is definitely a bannable offense. And he directed the profanity at me. Why should I ignore that?
-
Thanks for asking. Because Arny is always the good guy and you are way too sensitive to be a mauler.
-
Yeah, let's ban everyone who uses the word "we". How dare you talking to the terminator like that.
-
Usually we have to scroll down a bit for the idiotic comments to show. Looks like we started off on the very first post. Way to go! I always believed you could do it.
-
Sorry bro, but it has been reported when Sony is winning on this site. You may have missed those articles, but they do exist. You can run a search for them. I think that's why people are heated. They see your confidence as undeserved and arrogant. But maybe like I surmised...mayne you never saw those articles, in which case I can understand why you'd be incorrect.
-
But your observation is so wrong. Your entire argument is wrong.
-
The problem is you keep making an observation that is wrong. And when advised of that by multiple people including someone who runs this site, you continue to make the wrong observation.
-
No, we just have differing opinions.
Why is this so hard? My observation is correct, I didn't say who was reporting it , that's why I said "we". It was a generalization, so its u that is incorrect.
I've had a good laugh, been fun :) -
Just because you can't seem to read properly doesn't mean it wasn't reported
-
You have terrible observational skills then.
-
Didn't say who reported it, just that it was. What's the big deal?
-
I'm still wondering what crawled up your butt and died? Please explain that part so we all understand why you hate your life. It's ok.... You don't have to cry yourself to sleep every night (or maybe its just on nights when xbox wins....i dunno)
-
Did u not read that I'm an Xbox owner and a fan? Missed that bit? Explains your uneducated responses.
Most fun I've had in ages lol
Shame I cant see the mark downs on my WP? Was looking forward to a large negative score.
What's with that on mobile? -
I guess your an xbox fan....i dont know, but its irrelevant to my question to you. What has crawled up your butt and died? We are eager to know.
-
Your personality if you must know, certainly explains the stench.
-
Yes i knew that.....but please answer my original question.
-
Both your initial comment and your secondary complain makes no sense. NPD always counted. Nothing changed. And if anything, last month was the least anyone mentioned NPD results. MS nor anyone else counted.
-
You must be new. This report comes out every month.
-
He's not new..... Probably just low intelligence
-
From this point on it doesn't matter how much the PS4/Pro sells. The XB1S will always be the #1 selling console with built in 4K UHD Bluray support. :-)
-
Yup...4k Blu-ray player changed the game completely.
-
If I remember correctly, most digital movies were made with a 2k pipeline, new movies will be 4k. Sounds like sony made a guess of more streaming and less discs. 4k adoption has been very very slow...no content. Sony is betting on streaming.
-
And Sony is right to do so. But is the XB1S not able to stream 4k also?
-
.I assume so. Either way there is a lack of content. Most companies have been moving to streaming, apparently sony didnt want to outsource the drive on tech they are moving away from. Sony is a streaming co. in a big way....ie vue and now.
-
One thing we never hear much about it what happens as consoles become obsolete. MSFT appears to have avenues like UWP apps and Hololens to eventually move away from the console. Sony doesnt seem like it has anywhere to go/grow?
-
MS is basically out of the console wars, now its about custom premium hw and pushing cloud. Sony will make consoles for a bit, but its all streaming now Vue and Now.
-
Still think that is one nice looking console. Guess others do too.
-
I don't like the feel of the new controller (my housemate got a One S) but otherwise it is pretty swanky.
-
I'm not an Xbox fan, but it looks a hell of a lot better than that big mac pro.
-
Looking at 4k Sony games for a year will not do MS any good by just having a UHD player hopefully they have Scorpio ready by Q2 next year. I hate seeing one sided races. I just brought a 144hz G-Sync display and couldn't be any more happy with my PC either way =)
-
Those games are not 4K the Playstation just upscale them to 4k that's it! Now games will actually run smoother and better than the Xbox one S which is unfortunate for a year but the Scorpio next year will actually do native 4k. Maybe not every game but no game on the Pro will be native 4k Posted via the Windows Central App for Android
-
Well, technically you can get equivalent hardware today, no reason to wait really. Xbox at this point is just brand name for a particular hardware sold by ms with windows 10. Ms basically is out of the console wars, but they are still in the console business....their console is Windows 10. I guess I don't get the wait till next year thing, if you are invested in the ms store.
-
Consoles are great for people like me who use the Xbox as more of a media device. I only game sporadically.
-
what? you can pickup a media device for nothing...i am so confused....of course ubr won't be playable because well streaming
-
So basically the Scorpio is to the Pro what the PS4 is to the Xbox One. And considering everyone here would drone on and on about how the improved graphics on the PS4 meant nothing I'm not entirely sure why the improved graphics on Scorpio mean anything either.
-
You've got it wrong there. It'll be more like comparing the XB One to Wii U.
-
I'll believe that when I see it.
-
Die sony.
-
Lol, really??
-
Good, Sony (/big corporations) always f-cks up if they even think they've gotten ahead, a healthy competition should keep all sides on edge.
-
So what were the Top 10 best-selling games? Usually that is part of the announcement, but I don't see any publications reporting it.
-
Maybe people want to play 4K Blu-ray discs.
-
I just want to know when the S is coming out in black.
-
Smart move by Microsft catching holiday sales period and I am thinking the XB1 will become more affordable while this takes more sales because folks will be buying new 4k capable TVs.
-
Without actual numbers being released, this is the equivalent of a 5 year old saying it.
-
They've been the official source since Sony and Microsoft stopped saying numbers. They've also been used as a source by both Sony and Microsoft advertisement.
-
Xbox has always been in better position than Microsoft's other hardwares..
-
Oh, well. I think Daniel should be much politer by saying "Please don't use we". The tone of the message was irritating to me to be honest and from being a professional journo he should be more cautious. I'm not picking on Daniel just my personal thought.
-
You think this is a professional journalism site? It's an ad site for MS products or by products.
-
Will be interesting to see how the next few months pan out in regards to Sony/MS sales. PS4Pro seems like a decent proposition but the One S isn't far behind and is in my opinion better value. MS are building superb momentum lately and Sony have stumbled a little...the PS4 slim seems a little pointless, and the lack of 4K Blu ray in the Pro seems odd but not sure how significant that actually is yet...
-
The sales are not interesting because it has been a landslide, the console wars are over, although MS will probably continue to try and turn your PC into a console... as far as having one set of hardware its over. I still don't understand why people want to turn their PC into a console but that is another subject. The PS4 Pro is a premium product also will be used for PSVR (60/1080p), I doubt they care, if it sells a ton, or people can just keep buying the PS4 as far as they are concern. I don't see the comparsion between the S and Pro. The Pro is a 4.2tf machine and the S is only 1.4tf if I remember correctly. The Pro is roughly 3x the raw power of the S, for gaming its not even close, but the S has the 4k br player, and will be $100 less. The S isn't even close to being as powerful as the original PS4, let alone the Pro. "the PS4 slim seems a little pointless" I don't think they even called it a slim, its just a normal redesign to save on cost and to fix known design problems... I would imagine the original PS4 with the Pro will sell north of 150m units. Not sure what you mean by stumbled a little... Sony has definitely turned it around in a big way with PS. I agree the lack of 4k br is confusing, but I believe Sony would have had to outsourced the ubr and it wasn't worth the cost to them as they believe streaming is the future, heck its been around for 8-10 years. Sony is all in on streaming PS Vue and PS Now, and they didn't want to spend the extra $20 on tech they don't want. The console wars are over, MS intergrating Xbox into Windows 10... so now every Windows 10 device is a Xbox as far as they are concern. MS's competition is all the storefronts i.e. Steam, Origin, Adobe, etc. Sure they will produce hardware at a premium i.e. Surface, Scorpio, etc. but really at this point its just a Win10 device. The best value, if you want to be in MS's eco-system is to build your own PC at this point, Scorpio is going to be nothing more than a PC with a Xbox sticker on it.... Xbox is being consumed by Windows 10. I'm confused by all the console talk because at this point... MS is more or less out of the console wars and is now in the storefront wars. Of course, I am further confused by why anyone would want to be involved in UWP and its store... Steam sure, but the MS Store.... good luck As far as the gamer, it comes down to, if you believe in the eco-system... MS doesn't really care, the more people they can convert to UWP users the better.... as the Xbox as you knew is going bye bye. I am not telling anyone what to buy.... but at this point you are buying into an eco-system... not a console... in MS's system... Windows 10 is your console..... I mean I can play my PS4 games on my Surface via streaming and PS Now is available as well... nothing stopping Sony from even putting out a Now App and you could play all their titles on your Xbox.... the console wars are over.
-
Is it over over? Or just over, but not really? I just want to make sure I understand why I'll be buying the new gaming console next year.
-
If you are talking a new Xbox... well, you can buy a brand new one with new specs anytime you want... its called a PC. If you want a 4k Xbox, no reason to wait till next year... MS is saying go buy a new PC or you can wait till next year and they will release their own PC with a Xbox sticker on it at a premium price i.e. like the Surface, Surface Hub, and probably a Xbox branded PC. MS is out of the console wars, you can now buy a new Xbox from Dell or HP etc. If you have Windows 10, in MS's eyes you now have a Xbox. MS is more or less out of the hardware (console wars), although they have said they will release hardware when they feel a segment is not be met by 3rd party support. There is really only Windows 10 at this point going forward, Xbox is just brand not a console. MS doesn't care if you call your PC a console or your console a PC, they just want you in their eco-system i.e. Microsoft Store. MS would actually rather you just went and bought your new console toay from Dell, HP, etc. as there really isn't much of a difference at this point, and they have lost billions and billions trying to subsize the console hardware.
-
Sony has lost billions subsidizing console hardware.
-
Loss on the PS3 but probably not by much if you add in BR sales, PS1, PS2, and PS4 money makers. MS is just rolling Xbox into Windows 10, now any device from their POV is a Xbox console. It's no longer hardware, its software. None of them are going to subsidize much going forward.... but if one wants to buy a premium PC branded with Xbox on it... MS might actually provide that just like they do with the Surface. I just don't get the whole, I am going to wait to get the Scorpio.... why? I mean right out the gate you save $40-60 a month if you just play on the PC.... its going to be the same game.... and playing with the same people. Sony might one day just stop releasing hardware as well, I mean their strategy is streaming, more or less. Vue and Now. Either way the console wars are effectively over. You are buying into the eco-system at this point, so you dig PC gaming locked in a console shell or you don't.
-
I have just bought my first current-gen console, an XB1S to replace my 360. I was very pleasantly surprised to find I had a collection of 70+ games waiting for me, thanks to backwards compatability and games with gold. If I had switched to playstation I would have had nothing. I am also glad I chose a 2TB hard drive, considering the size of games these days (~45GB). I am surprised that 500GB is still an option.
-
it doesn't matter ... sony will clean up with their new 4k gaming rig and almost affordable VR this holiday season.
-
They don't have a 4k gaming rig. None of the games running on Pro will ever be in 4K. 4K upscaling ( which the Pro has ) is not remotely close to 4K gaming. Textures, shadows, all of it. Will all be 1080p native. It's not 4K and will look alot worse than true 4k on Scorpio.
-
Obviously it's going to depend on the game, some games could be naive others won't have as big a resolution gains, and most will have to use checkerboarding which is a process of faking a higher scale resolution to get to 4k. I would say DF was mostly impressed but they did note some slight issues with the technique which has been around for sometime... like soft iq when in motion. Scorpio is more or less a Xbox branded PC running Windows 10 at this point. You can build a Xbox today that has better specs than both the Neo and Scorpio, of course you are probably going to spend around $200 for a graphics card to reach near what the Neo can do. The Neo is a stop gap betweeen the PS4 and PS5, MS is more or less getting out of the cycle business and console wars.... if you want a powerful Xbox, nothing stopping you from building one today according to MS's POV. PS4 Pro is just Sony's premium product to stop people from going to Steam more than anything and to provide 1080/60 for the PSVR. I do disagree that none of the games will be naive 4k, depends on the game, the tech, and the developer. At this point, MS is saying if you want the latest and greatest.... build your own PC.... otherwise you'll have to wait for their Xbox branded PC.
-
Yet Sony probably outsold XBone 10 to 1 outside US which we magically don't care about anymore? Oh and Japan where XBone is dead, baby dead.
-
Japan is Sony's Home Market. It's like the Apple effect in the USA (the only market in the world where OSX has double didgit market share) It would be extremely strange for Microsoft to beat Sony on it's Home turf. Posted via the Windows Central App for Android