If a champagne drought hits the Redmond area this week, we may have discovered the reason. Microsoft has announced its Xbox 360 sold 1.7 million units during the month of November in the United States, according to data provided by the NPD Group.

Sony declined to share specific numbers but the company's PR chief Patrick Seybold said, "PlayStation 3 is off to a phenomenal start to the holiday season, recording the best ever Black Friday sales period in the console's five-year history. According to the November NPD report the PS3 saw a 70% increase in hardware and a 30% increase in software year-over-year."

For the month of November, Nintendo has revealed the Wii sold more than 860,000 units. Its handhelds also saw strong numbers during the retail-centric month, pushing more than 795,000 Nintendo 3DS systems and more than 350,000 Nintendo DS units out the door. Last year, Nintendo sold 1.27 million Wii consoles and "over 1.5 million" Nintendo DS systems.

According to NPD data in November 2010, the PlayStation 3 moved 530,000 units, which would mean that--accounting for the 70% increase in sales this year--Sony would have sold in the neighborhood of 900,000 consoles in November. Based on Microsoft's boast of selling "nearly double" the units as the second place platform this year, the estimated Sony figure may be accurate.

Microsoft noted Black Friday was a major contributor to selling so many units in Novemeber. According to the company's own internal data, the Xbox 360 sold 800,000 units within a 24 hour period during the week. Kinect, they added, sold more than 750,000 sensors during the week, as well.