Xbox 360 Opens Wide Lead on PS3 in October

November 13, 2008 4:05 PM

Sales of Microsoft's Xbox 360 dominated those of rival Sony's PlayStation 3 by a nearly two-to-one margin in October, according to new figures released by US sales tracker NPD.

The final numbers show the Xbox 360 with October sales of 371,000 units, compared to PlayStation 3 sales of 190,000. The Xbox 360 also lead the PlayStation 3 in the month of September, though by a smaller margin.

The news follows a September 7 price cut on the cheapest version of the Xbox 360 to $199, and comes just ahead of the November 19 launch of the New Xbox Experience, a set of updates to the console's interface and functionality.

Nintendo continued to top the console charts, with the Wii outselling the combined sales of both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360:

Wii - 803,000 units
Nintendo DS - 491,000 units
Xbox 360 - 371,000 units
PSP - 193,000 units
PlayStation 3 - 190,000 units
PlayStation 2 - 136,000 units

In all, the US video game industry brought in $1.31 billion during October 2008, an 18% increase over October 2007. Hardware sales grew 5% to $494.7 million, with software sales growing an impressive 35%--from $514.6 million last year to $696.7 million this October. Accessory sales were down 8%, only netting $120 million.

"The sales results are mixed this month, however," noted NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "The console portion of the market made significant gains at 26% across hardware, software and accessories, while the portable side of the market stalled, declining 14%. Year-to-date the portable segment of the market is still up 7%."

Nick Breckon

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SiW.

 reply
November 13, 2008 4:10 PM

I'd love to see a breakdown on what 360 SKUs sold. You have to imagine the economy is making people look at their Christmas lists and go for the cheapest option, and the 360 wins on shelf price.
- Durajim
  
   reply
  November 13, 2008 4:21 PM
  
  The cheapest one is the arcade model, yes? That's got to suck to have that model. No HD = no fun!. Buying it stand alone is so expensive too.
  - BioSector
    
     reply
    November 13, 2008 4:32 PM
    
    http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/hardware/memoryupdate/default.htm
    
    20 gig drive for $20 if you bought an arcade or core. Or 512meg memory card for free.
    - BioSector
      
       reply
      November 13, 2008 6:03 PM
      
      Wow.. So, I bought a arcade a while back and stuck a 120gig on it. Went through the signup anyway thinking I could snag a cheap backup HDD or memory card..
      
      It knows I have enough storage space, and says I don't qualify. Guessing it looks to see how much Live content I've downloaded? Damn MS.. ;)
      - Dr_Cube
        
         reply
        November 13, 2008 6:24 PM
        
        Wow. That is really miserly of them.
      - giantshift
        
         reply
        November 14, 2008 3:07 AM
        
        take the hard drive out, you supposedly get a different serial for to put on the site. or so i heard.