US Hardware: Xbox sales surge ahead of PS2 in April
NPD figures for April show that Microsoft enjoyed a period of dominance in the US market this year, scooping up 51 per cent market share, largely thanks to a recent price cut.
The Xbox is officially outselling the PS2 in America, according to April figures from NPD which state that the Microsoft machine had a 51 per cent market share during the month.
The recent price drop to $149 has sent sales of the Xbox rocketing to 270,000 units -over 70,000 ahead of the PS2, and 170,000 ahead of the GameCube, according to US analyst P.J. McNealy - who revealed the figures to CBS Marketwatch in the absence of official figures from Microsoft itself, which was uncharacteristically coy in its moment of triumph.
Xbox sales for the month rose by a dramatic 135 per cent year on year - which compared favourably with the PS2 which actually dropped 29 per cent year on year, while Cube sales have dipped by five per cent.
In market share terms, the PS2 now holds 32 per cent of market volume, while the Cube has slumped to just 17 per cent.
Meanwhile, Microsoft claims its Xbox market share in UK, France and Germany combined has risen from 23 per cent to 26 per cent. "This marks the first time ever that Sony has been knocked off the leaderboard by another console in this generation," Microsoft boasted in its press release, but question marks remain how long it will hold the upper hand.