NPD Stats Reveal Sony PS4 Was Bestselling Console Of 2016

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Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One are the major rivals in the gaming industry for the console platform. They both have been a topic of numerous debates as to which is the best performer and bestseller.

The NPD group, which is an industry analyst and market research firm, has concluded that PS4 was the bestselling gaming console in the United States for the year 2016. On the other hand, there was a lot of momentum in the Microsoft's Xbox One's sales too in the second half of 2016, as reported by NPD. Sony, however, has been mum on the statistics and sales figures that were published by NPD. But, they have confirmed the NPD data to GamesBeat.

The Xbox One sales soared in the second half of 2016 and Microsoft has confirmed via Twitter that it did outsell Sony's PlayStation 4 in the last six months of 2016. The company also confirmed that December 2016 was a biggest sales month for its console.

Talking of the PS4, the console held the top three out of five slots for consoles sold at the online retailers, placing the console well ahead of the Xbox One, as reported by VentureBeat. These rankings are because of some of the console exclusive games which debuted in December, including Final Fantasy XV.

"December was the biggest month ever for Xbox One sales in the U.S., and Xbox One was the only [current-generation] console with year-over-year growth, according to NPD," a Microsoft spokesperson said. Also, Xbox One was the bestselling console over the second half of 2016, following the announcement of Xbox One S at E3, the spokesperson added.

Both Microsoft and Sony will carry their momentum into 2017 also and are expected to release new consoles. Sony will release a new version of PS4 called PlayStation 4 Pro which will be a 4K capable console, on the other hand Microsoft also plans to launch an updated Xbox One called Xbox One Scorpio that is speculated even more powerful than the Sony PS4 Pro.