Microsoft bossing US market

Xbox 360’s American dream continues with news that Microsoft’s console saw year-on-year sales gains in October 2010.

It was the only console in the market to enjoy annual growth, with total unit sales of 325k according to Larry Hryb. That’s a 34 per cent year-on-year increase for a machine now in its sixth year on the market.

To date in 2010 sales totalled 3.5m units, bettering the performance of both PS3 and Wii. Its success comes despite an overall decline of 26 per cent in the US hardware market.

Microsoft also enjoyed success in the software sector, claiming four top-selling single platform SKUs. First party sales were strong too with Halo Reach shifting 315k units and Fable III 580k.

Of course, the big question now is whether the Xbox 360 can enjoy an even better performance in November thanks to the arrival of Kinect.

The device sold 1m+ units in its first ten days on sale, leading to a doubling of console sales in its first week in the UK. Should it replicate, or even better, this in the US then Microsoft could be heading into Christmas in the sort of healthy prediction no one would have predicted when the machine first arrived in 2005.

The numbers are a particular disappointment to Sony, who must surely have hoped that the recent launch of Move would have provided a year-on-year boost in hardware sales.