The FINANCIAL -- Microsoft ’s
Xbox 360 has been dominating its home turf for the past couple of
years, sitting atop the monthly sales charts for the U.S. video-game
console market, but the Redmond company has just taken the title of
top-selling home console worldwide, as well.
According to Microsoft , Sony’s earnings report, issued yesterday, puts the PlayStation 3 at 6.5 million units sold worldwide for the holiday quarter, topping the 5.6 million units registered by Nintendo’s Wii for the same period — but falling short of the 8.2 million Xbox 360 sales reported by Microsoft .
According to data compiled by GeekWire, it’s the first time that the Xbox 360 has led worldwide holiday sales since 2006, when the PlayStation 3 and Wii were just being launched, posting a partial quarter and not yet ramping up their manufacturing to meet demand.
Here’s the bigger news: The Xbox 360′s strong holiday quarter also put the Microsoft console ahead in worldwide sales globally for the full year of 2011, with 14.9 million units sold, compared with 14.1 million for the PS3 and 10.33 million for the Wii.
According to our data, compiled from historical earnings reports, it’s first time the Xbox 360 has topped the worldwide console market for a full year of head-to-head competition with the PS3 and Wii.
Microsoft’s surge reflects the strong reception for the Kinect motion sensor and the expansion of the console as a home entertainment device, enabled by regular software updates.
Don Mattrick, the Microsoft video-game chief, had predicted last year at the E3 conference that Xbox 360 would become the No. 1 console globally.
On a cumulative basis, Nintendo is still the king of the current console generation, with 95 million Wiis sold worldwide, compared with 66 million Xbox 360 for Microsoft and 62 million Ps3s for Sony.
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