Microsoft claims Xbox 360 sold 8 million more worldwide than PS3

Once again just before CES week, Microsoft is claiming victory in the game console race, at least against rival Sony PlayStation 3. And once again, veteran analyst Sharon Fisher pores over the numbers.

When I was a kid, I used to love word problems. You know, "Sally is 6 years older than Jane, and Jane is twice as old as Margaret. If the ages of all three add up to 21, how old is each girl?"

That's what Microsoft's Xbox 360 sales press release today sounded like.

The report said Microsoft had sold "more consoles, games and online entertainment experiences sold than any previous year," where "life-to-date unit sales of Xbox 360 systems climbed to 28 million consoles worldwide." It also expanded "the product's lead over Sony PlayStation 3 to more than 8 million units."

Did you notice that, nowhere in there, did they say how many of the things they actually sold? Okay, so now let's do the math.

In January, 2007, the Xbox 360 had sold 4.5 million since launch, and the Sony PS3 had sold 687,300. Now, there's no worldwide sales watchdog for these figures. The NPD Group releases monthly sales figures for consoles sold in the US, and then an annual report for the previous year in January. So let's look at how things went in the US.

In January, 2008, NPD Group figures had the Xbox 360 with 4.62 million for the year, and the PS3 with 2.56 million for the year. (Notice, too, that Microsoft isn't comparing itself to the Wii, which sold 6.29 million in 2007 and 1.1 million since launch as of January 2007, for a total of 7.39 million.)

Well, the NPD Group numbers for December and for the year won't be out until later this week, but let's look at the month to month figures compiled from various sources:

	Xbox 360	PS3	Wii
January 2008	230,000	269,000	274,000
February 2008	254,600	280,800	432,000
March 2008	262,000	257,000	721,000
April 2008	188,000	187,100	714,200
May 2008	186,600	208,700	675,100
June 2008	219,800	405,500	666,700
July 2008	205,500	225,000	555,000
August 2008	195,200	185,400	453,000
September 2008	347,200	232,400	667,000
October 2008	371,000	190,000	803,000
November 2008	836,000	378,000	2,040,000
TOTAL:	3,295,400	2,818,900	8,001,000

[Source: Wikia Gaming compilation of NPD figures]

Indeed, Microsoft has performed consistently better than Sony since last August, and we're expecting December numbers soon from NPD which would probably verify that continued margin. But taking everything into account, Microsoft would have to have sold considerably more Xbox units worldwide -- that is, outside the US -- than Sony sold PS3s, in order to make its 8 million claim true.

(Notice, too, that the Nintendo Wii sold twice as many units as the Xbox 360. But Microsoft doesn't talk about that. In fact, Nintendo was able to sell just in the month of November alone 72% of what Microsoft sold for Xbox 360s all year, in unit count.)

But there's also Microsoft's use of that elegant little word, "sold." What is "sold"? Does "sold" mean "sitting in a consumer's living room"? Or does "sold" mean "shipped to a Circuit City, where it's currently standing in a huge stack of others on clearance, soon to be returned"? Does "sold" even mean "On a pallet packed up for Circuit City, unless they cancel the order"? We have no way of knowing.

NPD Group will release its December and 2008 numbers later this week, and we'll tell you how everyone did, at least in the US.

[ME's NOTE: We corrected a mis-statement in the title of this piece that was introduced during the editing process; it should note that the lead of the Xbox 360 over the PS3 is 8 million, not the total units sold. We regret the error, and thank jacobrelles for pointing it out.]
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