Xbox tops PlayStation for the 30th straight month

NPD figures have been released for the month of June. With gamers saving their pennies for Xbox One and PS4, it comes as no surprise that video game hardware and software both declined significantly last month. With software dropping nearly 15% and hardware down 30%, it was yet another bad month for the video game industry as a whole.

While Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 sales are undoubtedly slowing, Nintendo has bested their closest competition yet again. The 3DS managed to outsell the Xbox 360 in North America for the second straight month, and outsold the PlayStation 3 and Wii U as well.  As for consoles, the Xbox 360 outsold the PlayStation 3 for the 30th consecutive month but saw sales drop nearly 50%.

It didn’t hurt that Nintendo had a big game release for their handheld last month. Animal Crossing New Leaf saw a fantastic critical reception, and led the way for the company in June. Sony’s The Last of Us also continued to sell well for the company, but apparently it couldn’t put them ahead of either the Xbox 360 or the Nintendo 3DS, even with it being the number one game in the NPD charts.  Minecraft’s retail release sold well for Microsoft, making the top three for June.

The NPD group also began tracking the OUYA, but claims that after one month of availability, sales for the Android based system were “relatively light for a new console.”