Report: 310K 360s sold over Thanksgiving week

[UPDATE] Microsoft confirms Black Friday performance figure, claims it doubled sales of Sony's PS3 for the week.

Console hardware sales are getting a lot of scrutiny of late. Last year, the industry-tracking NPD Group began releasing monthly breakdowns of US retail hardware sales and found its numbers getting a lot of play in both mainstream and specialist press outlets.

With the unofficial start to the holiday retail season having kicked off after the Thanksgiving holiday, CNBC's Tech Check blog is giving a glimpse of how Microsoft's Xbox 360 fared over the week of "Black Friday," which ran from November 18 to 24.

In an addendum to a story on the console maker's various woes with Xbox 360 reliability, Tech Check reports that US consumers purchased more than 310,000 systems for the week of November 18. For the entire month of October, the NPD Group reported Xbox 360 sales of 366,000, compared with 519,000 Wiis and 121,000 PlayStation 3s.

If true, the 310,000 figure is near the 350,000 Wiis Nintendo reported were sold during Black Friday week. So far, Sony has not reported exact sales numbers for the PS3 but did say that sales of the console increased 245 percent during the seven-day period.

[UPDATE] Microsoft confirmed the 310,000 figure to GameSpot, and went on to claim that "according to estimates from top retailers," the Xbox 360 outsold the PlayStation 3 by a ratio of 2:1 for the week.

472 Comments

  • kletoskletos

    Posted Jun 5, 2008 10:38 am PT

    to athonline:
    to bdbogart:
    LordSpaz - "They've both got some awesome exclusives."
    WRONG. The 360 HAS awesome exclusives. The PS3 MAY HAVE awesome exclusives in the future. Currently there are no games that I am playing on my PS3

    Ok fanboy, PS3 has: Ratchet, Uncharted, Warhawk, Heavenly Sword, Resistance as Exclusives.
    You know nothing about gaming athonlone.You said PS3 have good exclusives but thats wrong.Except from this two years have passed after the release of ps3 and the grafix of ps3 are much wrost than xbox360.Not to mention the awful buggy ps home service.With xbox you can communicate with your friends with ps3 you can't even talk to them while playing.Blue ray won the war with HD DVD but ps3 lost the war with xbox360.Sony has imported many additional things to make the ps3 look better but they forgot the primary use of the console the gaming part.
    In my opinion ps3 is no longer a console but a low end pc..

  • lamprey263

    Posted Dec 4, 2007 12:18 am PT

    Dang, according to VGChartz, the PS2 did a little bit better than the PS3 for that week... well, almost all year for that matter.

  • razu_gamer

    Posted Dec 3, 2007 7:40 am PT

    LoL, same old rant by 360 and PS fanboys. Blah blah the Wii is kiddy and blah blah. Thats what they said about DS. Exact same thing, under-powered, yet great innovation and a price point thats attractive to all. This is the same thing with Wii. @Tandem_Toad: and the highest selling game of all time (that did not come as a pack in) is pokemon something. Galaxy 500000k is for US only.

  • zaphod_b

    Posted Dec 3, 2007 6:01 am PT

    I have been enjoying my 360 all along, and have never regretted the Purchase. I have enjoyed my Wii sometimes and sometimes I regret the purchase. I will still buy a PS3 when the timing is right. When the selection of games is high enough that I can find a good variety of what I want, I will buy one, and it probably will wind up on top eventually. Of course I will have already enjoyed my 360 for 2.5-3 years up to that point, which only reinforces the idea that the 360 is a middle-gen system, and PS3 is truly next-gen. We'll see though. Sony has to prove it to me that they are in for the long haul and they can supply the games.

  • dpballes

    Posted Dec 2, 2007 4:29 pm PT

    It's funny watching people still arguing about this. Virtually every analyst has stated that Nintendo and Microsoft would both gain more than enough market share to maintain a foothold in the industry but that Sony would eventually come out on top in the end (just like the last two times).

    Make no mistake, just because they will come out on top, doesn't necessarily mean Sony made the "best" console. There is no denying that they're loosing more ground than they're comfortable with.

  • gamefreakwill

    Posted Dec 2, 2007 8:17 am PT

    Bhatiaa2: Keep dreaming, the Wii is slaughtering the PS3 in Japan. Also, its going to be really hard for Sony to make a comeback next year seeing they are not going to make it out of the Holiday Season alive, in dead third, AGAIN, seeing its 40gb PS3 didn't do as well as it could have done Looks like the 360 is gaining on the Wii again, but with Mario Kart and SSBB coming, its going to have a hard time cuz those are extremely popular franchises. It looks like the Wii may win this console war, but if not, the 360 will.

  • godslim

    Posted Dec 2, 2007 4:35 am PT

    @ bbkchib
    sorry but if ps3 and wii were the same price more people whould buy ps3 and thats the truth not coz wii appeals to every1 it so does not

  • Tandem_Toad

    Posted Dec 1, 2007 4:26 pm PT

    Awesome! Everyone is ranting about the 1 million units sold by Nintendo (both Wii and DS). Pfff. They can sell all the units they want. It's all about the games. Nintendo keeps putting out old has-been kiddie franchises with sales to show it. Mario Galaxy is their best seller at 500k the 1st week. Every big title on the 360 has beat that by a landslide (e.g. Halo, Assassins Creed, Mass Effect, Oblivion, Bioshock, Gears of War). Halo sold 700k the 1st night. The PS3 isn't even in the same ball park. So, no need to mention them.

  • bbkchib

    Posted Dec 1, 2007 2:11 pm PT

    More sales numbers, I don't really care about, but I was out shopping during black Friday and was lucky enough to get a copy of COD 4 for 48 bucks and a Golden triforce DS bundle for 130. But I did notice that the Xbox pro bundle was sold out at all the stores. I spotted a couple of Elites at a Best Buy. The one that was readily available at most store was the Arcade package, and the Halo edition. To this date, I've never seen a Wii on the shelf of any retail store. But almost every where that I went to on that day, the PS3's were plentiful. The same best buy stores had two palettes full of PS3.

    The point is, we don't need anyone to point out the obvious when we can see it blatantly. The Wii will sell because it's market to gamers of all ages. I got Super Mario Galaxy and I didn't like it as much because, to me, it's very similar to Super Mario Sunshine. It's a fun game, and would hold my attention, if I was still 9 years old. The thing with the Wii, is that there are a lot of fun games, but the games that the system has isn't target for hardcore gamers. It's fun to play against my girlfriend and sisters and father. Because they belong to a group that doesn't play much games. And so, I don't want to spend too much time explaining to them what to do. With the Wii, they are creating so many of these brain dead easy to pick up games, that why they are successful.

    But I had to get a X360 because they offer more games that I like to play. I am still holding off getting a PS3 they are still asking way too much and they are not offering enough. Sony's biggest mistake is the price tag they put on the PS3. They would have killed had they offer the system, their premium 80GB system at the 350 price range. At 350, the choice would be easier, x360 or ps3? Most would probably get the PS3 just based on Sony's reputation, and would make it easier on guys like me that eventually get all the systems.

  • dybbuk

    Posted Dec 1, 2007 7:19 am PT

    I don't why we are talking about Jeff here, but oh well. I am not happy to see anyone get fired, but this guy did terrible reviews. It seemed like if a game didn't have the latest cutting edge graphics from the current gen of consoles he scored it low not taking any other aspects of the game into account. I found his review of Zelda TP to be low as compared to others in the industry, of coarse this is only one example but there are others as well. He also didn't seem to grade games objectively but let his personal bias dictate points and scores for him. I personally did not like his reviews and it got to the point that I would not read one from him. He may have been a good guy, but was not a good game reviewer. Perhaps his calling is elsewhere.

  • razu_gamer posted Dec 1, 2007 5:33 am PT (does not meet display criteria. login to show)

    razu_gamer

    Posted Dec 1, 2007 5:33 am PT (hide)

    Wii will Wii Will own you!!!

  • IguanaBob

    Posted Dec 1, 2007 3:39 am PT

    darthyoda03:
    It's not that the PS3 doesn't have any good games, it's that all the good games are also on the 360. But not all the good 360 games are on the PS3. If you go to metacritic.com (which averages all reviews, so not biased) the 360 has 12 games 90 out of 100 or above, the PS3 has only 3 that are 90 and above, and all 3 are also on the 360!! Not to mention those 3 ps3 games are also rumble less !!

  • IguanaBob

    Posted Dec 1, 2007 3:23 am PT

    charley_mcd:
    I'm selling my 360 on ebay.It's just dissapointed me with every game i've bought for it(especially halo)Getting wii,ps3 rumble controller and cod 4 for ps3.

    NO sane owner of a xbox360 would say or do that. Especially those who played Halo 3 and Mass effect. Ether you don't own a xbox360 or just jealous of xbox360's success. I'm guessing the later. Well have fun with cod 4 on ps3 without the rumble.

  • javierkatana

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 11:12 pm PT

    Many readers have asked about why we run ads on the site that often have very little to do with gaming. I am going to answer that now publicly, as it seems fitting when you consider the event that has taken place between Jeff Gerstmann and his former long time employer Gamespot.

    In case readers didn’t notice Gamespot ran a bunch of Kane & Lynch advertisements, and with that, though they can deny it, comes a certain level of unwritten respect that is expected. Think about it, why does Consumer Reports not run ads? Why is it you never hear networks bad mouth their sponsors? Why do we here at Ripten run ads that rarely have anything to do with gaming?

    The answer to the last question is two fold. First, it is because our site is fairly new, and we have yet to establish a relationship with that type of vendor, but secondly, and most importantly, the longer we have been doing this, the more it started to dawn on us that maybe we don’t want to run game related advertising on our site.

    Chad Lakkis on November 30, 2007

    http://www.ripten.com/2007/11/30/can-you-trust-a-video-game-site-that-runs-video-game-ads/

  • UnholySaviour

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 9:57 pm PT

    @dimebag667 Meh...if anything you might be right...more 360's will break from being played then there are PS3's are being played.

  • dimebag667

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 8:43 pm PT

    how many of those are gonna break in a month?

  • bhatiaa2

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 7:48 pm PT

    I love how Gamespot reports this, but it says nothing about how the PS3 is now outselling the Wii in Japan

    I don't care much for console wars, but people always ranting on the ps3 is really annoying. just play.

  • xile2

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 6:58 pm PT

    heh... LOL. well i guess that just show yah that the 360 is hot.

  • Tandem_Toad

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 6:18 pm PT

    Awesome! Everyone is ranting about the 1 million units sold by Nintendo (both Wii and DS). Pfff. They can sell all the units they want. It's all about the games. Nintendo keeps putting out old has-been kiddie franchises with sales to show it. Mario Galaxy is their best seller at 500k the 1st week. Every big title on the 360 has beat that by a landslide (e.g. Halo, Assassins Creed, Mass Effect, Oblivion, Bioshock, Gears of War). Halo sold 700k the 1st night. The PS3 isn't even in the same ball park. So, no need to mention them.

  • hattorihanzo32

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 6:07 pm PT

    Is anyone here gaining from these companies profits i think not. so why argue about. all of them are doing well so be happy because this means more great games for us

  • lamprey263

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 5:07 pm PT

    So how many PS3s did Sony sell? Something tells me they have something to hide if they're only saying it increased 245%.

  • Sannerkind

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 3:17 pm PT

    To be honest the Wii Is not In the fight of the game machines anymore because It's on a new level of fun...I mean people are buying It....and they have never played a game In their life!

    So the real fight Is between PS3 and XBOX 360.

  • ChickenHounk911

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 2:59 pm PT

    Good job for the 360. I look forward to 2008 for all systems. The History Channel should make a documentary show on the origins of "fanboyism". It would be interesting to know what were the very first systems in the battle of the fanboys... They could have like interviews from all sides. From back in the glory arcade and pinballs days to the present console war. I would TiVo that FOR SURE!

  • GawNawRaw

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 2:58 pm PT

    @ NonyoBizness: The 360 isn't outselling the Wii. The Wii outsold the 360 by July (In Nine months) this year, and the 360 had a year start. The Wii sold 519,000 units in the same week the 360 also sold 310,000 units. The Wii is still 1st in "The Next Gen race" right now. The 360 is still second, and the PS3 is still last.

  • hunter8man

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 2:51 pm PT

    Because the majority of the software that kids want are out on Wii and 360.

  • thelegendlives5

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 2:15 pm PT

    Ok everyone is happy, healthy this holiday and more importantly their favorite console maker is selling well. God its great to be a gamer these days.

  • lamprey263

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 2:09 pm PT

    @NonyoBizness - I agree, I definitely like how well the 60GB PS3 does backwards compatibility. Too bad though that not everyone else can share our same level of satisfaction as the 80GB and 40GB don't even compare.

  • NonyoBizness

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 2:04 pm PT

    dragon what are you talking about? the wii and ps3 were released within about a week of each other (give or take). The XBox360 is outselling right now as of the present and that doesn't include all fo the extra consoles it sold before the PS3 came out. Everyone is always arguing.. each system has it's good points. So shut up and play =)

  • dragonpuppy

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 2:01 pm PT

    badman11226, the PS3 came out a couple of months before the Wii and a year after the 360.

  • badman11226

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 1:54 pm PT

    PS3 will do fine but it will never catch up to the 360 and the Wii. It already hurt itself by releasing a year later after the Wii adn the 360. Just like the ps2 did to the xbox. The ps2 got release a year early alot of people got it, the game were freaking awesome. Then the xbox came out and survived because halo 1 and 2. The PS3 will do fine but it just too late to catch up, PS3 havent hit 10 mils yets. 360 over 13 mils, Wii over 14 mils, PS3 over 6 mils. I mean how the hell can they PS3 is going to catch up. 2008 PS3 will have no more excuses it put up and shut the hell up. Its game time baby...

  • NonyoBizness

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 12:51 pm PT

    oh yes it is.... when you get outsold on your home turf by the least likely candidate... it is certainly worth mentioning.

  • Loucetios

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 12:47 pm PT

    NonyoBizness

    200 consoles is hardly worth mentioning

  • NonyoBizness

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 12:40 pm PT

    40gb sucks.. when they realize that sony cut out the 60gb because it was more expensive to make than even the 80gb and that it affects some performance features (ability to play ps1 & ps2 games... some consumers won't be that happy.

    Yep Lou, I was right about that... I wouldn't say it if I weren't.

    But worldwide I highly doubt ps3 outsold the wii or the 360 in November or black friday weekend. Actually I'm 99% sure it didn't.

  • Tnasty11

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 12:32 pm PT

    NonyoBizness PS3 OUtsold the wii in novermber japan because 40GB PS3, DW6, PE5 08 and R&C bump it got in japan

  • Loucetios

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 12:29 pm PT

    NonyoBizness

    i was right i looked it up, it was when ace combat 6 was released and it beat the ps3 by 200 units at the end october /beginning of november

  • NonyoBizness

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 12:29 pm PT

    Great post ctg.... goes to show ya Microsoft is probably right on target or at least close to what they claim.

  • ctg867

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 12:28 pm PT

    If anybody is curious, here are the NPD numbers this year and the ratio of 360 to PS3s sold. Also, it's important to note that October and November where extremely inflated due to Halo 3, also July was a price drop for the PS3 and January the PS3 was still coming off of holiday steam. On average, you're looking at 2.1 to 1 ratio so far this year, still taking into account a couple of huge over inflations and a couple of slightly smaller under inflations. In other words. A 2 to 1 ratio, or slightly lower then that, isn't out of the norm. Also, that's a much smaller ratio then we saw for Sept and Oct over all, so they're not improving on sales, they're just coming off Halo 3 inflation and back to a normal ratio. Not saying it's good for the PS3 to be outsold 2 to 1 so far this year, but it's not crazy if that did happen during the shopping weekend.

    October 2007:
    Xbox 360: 366,000
    Playstation 3: 121,000
    ---3 to 1 ratio---

    September 2007:
    Xbox 360: 528,000
    Playstation 3: 119,000
    ---4.4 to 1 ratio---

    August 2007:
    Xbox 360: 276,700
    PlayStation 3: 130,600
    ---2.1 to 1 ratio---

    July 2007:
    Xbox 360: 170,000
    Playstation 3: 159,000
    ---1.1 to 1 ratio---

    June 2007:
    Xbox 360: 198,400
    PlayStation 3: 98,500
    ---2 to 1 ratio---

    May 2007:
    Xbox 360: 155,000
    PlayStation 3: 82,000
    ---1.9 to 1 ratio---

    April 2007:
    Xbox 360: 174,000
    PlayStation 3: 82,000
    ---2.1 to 1 ratio---

    March 2007:
    Xbox 360: 199,000
    PlayStation 3: 130,000
    ---1.5 to 1 ratio---

    February 2007:
    Xbox 360: 228,000
    PlayStation 3: 127,000
    ---1.8 to 1 ratio---

    January 2007:
    Xbox 360: 294,000
    PlayStation 3: 243,554
    ---1.2 to 1 ratio---

  • NonyoBizness

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 12:27 pm PT

    Then why hasn't Sony released it's figures? They're not as good at math as those at microsoft and nintendo? Sony has lied in the past... I don't trust their argument without proof..... Microsoft boldy came out and gave it's numbers.. very proud. Bill Gates wouldn't approve this without doing his homework.

  • Loucetios

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 12:27 pm PT

    NonyoBizness

    are you sure it wans;t that outsold ps3 by 200 units from october?

  • NonyoBizness

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 12:26 pm PT

    if that is indeed true, it's probably because everyone in japan already has a Wii. But the 360 did better than ps3 a week in November... so what does that say? And that is the 360's worst market. USA is the largest market for video game sales... and the 360 is dominating the PS3 there and has had a huge head start so that just adds to the domination of sales. The wii... well I don't compare that to the other two because it's kind of in it's own league of gaming. It's more of a "fun/casual" gaming system rather than hardcore. I'm just happy I own one of each and they all work perfectly fine. But nothing says multiplayer like XBoxLive and it keeps getting better. It's insane.... it's decreasing pc gaming sales.

  • Tnasty11

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 12:25 pm PT

    http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/m...ves/126846.asp

    Sony is disputing Microsoft's statement about the ratio of Xbox 360 to PS3 sales during the week of Black Friday. Here's what Kimberly Otzman, a Sony spokeswoman, said to Todd Bishop of seattlepi.com: "It's (Sony Computer Entertainment America) policy not to disclose our unit sales numbers until NPD numbers are officially released which will be December 13th. However, I can assure you that Microsoft's estimates of our PS3 unit sales numbers are way off and they did not outsell PS3 2:1 during Black Friday week."

  • Loucetios

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 12:24 pm PT

    http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/console-b***hfight/

    fill in the letters and thats how we know the ps3 beat the wii in japan for November

  • Loucetios

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 12:23 pm PT

    NonyoBizness

    check gizmodo, it outsold the wii by 20k units for the entire month

  • NonyoBizness

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 12:19 pm PT

    http://www.joystiq.com/2007/11/09/xbox-360-outsells-ps3-in-japan/

    360 outsold PS3 in japan some week in November. So where did you get your figures from? I highly doubt anything outsold the wii in japan in November.

  • UnholySaviour

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 12:18 pm PT

    @ChaosXeno LOL...then again if Sony only moved 60,000 PS3's the week before Black Friday then everyone is telling the truth!

    btw if sony did move that many it would still be a all time record number of PS3 sales for a month.

  • Tnasty11

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 12:17 pm PT

    Statement
    Sony is disputing Microsoft's statement about the ratio of Xbox 360 to PS3 sales during the week of Black Friday. Here's what Kimberly Otzman, a Sony spokeswoman, said to Todd Bishop of seattlepi.com: "It's (Sony Computer Entertainment America) policy not to disclose our unit sales numbers until NPD numbers are officially released which will be December 13th. However, I can assure you that Microsoft's estimates of our PS3 unit sales numbers are way off and they did not outsell PS3 2:1 during Black Friday week." http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/m...ves/126846.asp

    Change it Gamespot

  • NonyoBizness

    Posted Nov 30, 2007 12:17 pm PT

    Halo 3, BioShock, Orange Box, The Darkness, Call of Duty 4, Rainbow Six: Las Vegas, Gears of War (okay not an fps, but its a shooter and plays like an fps), etc... I all play for the 360.

    Actually I like both blu ray and hd dvd. Neither one is superior at the moment, blu ray was outselling them because of the ps3.. but that is changing with the price drop in HD DVD PLayers. A toshiba hd dvd player was giong for 99 bucks at walmart and they are expected to sell hd dvd players between 99-199 this holiday season... thats a price cut that no one can compete with.

    Leave it to microsoft to orchestrate the owning of their competition via teamwork. Very very smart, I Must say. There's a big article on how it's supposed to surpass bluray this holiday season... I don't care because I have both. So I'm ready for whatever.

    I just dont like watching bluray on my ps3 since I know that sony has had problems in the past with it's lasers burning out and supposedly they are about the same quality this time around. With my 360 hd dvd player its a separate attachment and I don't have to worry about ruining the laser in my gaming console.

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