NPD December 2016: Sony Dominates Holidays but Microsoft Points Out Bright Spots

NPD Data for December has been released, and as expected, Sony’s PlayStation 4 was the best-selling console in the United States.  After revealing sales figures earlier this month, it was expected that Sony would be top-selling console.  However, not all is lost for Microsoft and the Xbox One as it appears they are slowly but surely closing the gap on the Sony and the PlayStation 4 — at least when you look at how badly they’d been beaten up in 2014 & 2015.

According to a statement from Microsoft, apparently PlayStation 4 sales actually declined year over year, while sales of the Xbox One increased in the same span.  Sony did not issue their standard address, but that’s likely because they recently made an announcement when they revealed that the PlayStation 4 had reached over 53 million consoles sold earlier this month.

Microsoft, on the other hand, did release a statement.  Despite lagging behind Sony in December, they say “December was the biggest month ever for Xbox One sales in the U.S. , and Xbox One was the only console with year over year growth.”  Making lemonade out of lemons, Microsoft also revealed that they were the top-selling console for the second half of 2016 overall.  Which was likely attributable to the very well-recieved Xbox One S following its E3 reveal.

2017 is gonna start out with a whimper, but quickly ramp up.  Nintendo is expected to release their long-awaited Nintendo Switch in March.  Sony will look to push consumers towards their higher-end PlayStation 4 Pro, while Microsoft will reveal and release the Xbox Scorpio.

While the PlayStation 4 Pro is a known quantity, and has seen a tepid reception.  Both Nintendo’s Switch and Microsoft’s Xbox Scorpio could shape up to be any number of things and start pushing the needle in a new direction if recieved well by consumers.