PS4 Leads US Console Sales in June 2016 NPDs

The NPD Group has released its monthly sales report for June 2016, and PS4 was once again the top-selling system in the United States during the month.

Sony confirmed with GameSpot that PS4 was the top-selling console. Beyond that, it declined to offer its usual statement on the report for the third month in a row.

Microsoft did offer a statement, but it continues to focus on usage numbers rather than sales figures, as it said it planned to do.

"Following a monumental E3, in June 2016, gaming hours on Xbox One reached a new milestone with more than 1.2 billion hours logged, which more than doubles gaming hours at the same point in time last year and makes it the highest we've ever seen for the platform to date," said Xbox marketing boss Mike Nichols. "Looking ahead, there's so much more in store for our fans. We've received a strong response to the new, highly-anticipated Xbox One S, launching next month as the first and only console that lets you watch Blu-ray movies and stream video in stunning 4K Ultra HD with HDR.

"We also introduced new Xbox Live features like Xbox Play Anywhere launching this September, allowing you to buy your game once and play seamlessly across both Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs through Xbox Live. And we'll release a new system update this summer and another this holiday to make gaming on Xbox even better. With all that coupled with an unrivaled lineup of games coming later this year and next, we're steadfast in bringing the best gaming experiences to Xbox fans across Xbox One, Windows 10 and Xbox Live and are excited to launch new hardware and experiences."

Nintendo shared a statement with GameSpot regarding June's report. It focused almost exclusively on the performance of its games but did note that the "3DS family of systems started summer on a hot streak with an average weekly sales increase of 39 percent over May." It attributed this in part to the 2DS price drop to $80, which happened on May 20.

Overall, hardware sales in the US dropped a dramatic 42 percent year-over-year, from $313.1 million last June to $181.5 million this year. NPD analyst Liam Callahan says this comes as a result of two things: a drop in unit sales (down 32 percent, perhaps in part because of new PS4 and Xbox hardware announcements) and a decline in average prices (down 15 percent). This is mostly due to a sales decline of 43 percent from eight-generation hardware, though these system still make up 87 percent of overall hardware spending. Handhelds combined to represent 11 percent.

"After 32 months since the launches of the PS4 and Xbox One, the combined cumulative hardware sales for these two consoles exceed the sales of their predecessors by 40 percent at the same point in their lifecycles," Callahan noted.

It's not just hardware on the decline, as both software (20 percent) and accessories (six percent) were also down in June compared with June 2015.

During May, PS4 was the top-selling console in the US as new hardware sales dropped 10 percent year-over-year to $153.1 million. That was largely due to a drop in portable hardware.

On the software side, Overwatch was the US' best-selling game in June.