Black Friday boosts for Xbox One and PS4 in UK

Sales of both next-gen consoles were up sharply week-on-week in the UK last week as retailers offered some great Black Friday deals.

Overall games hardware sales (both consoles and handhelds) soared past 300k units, a retail source has told MCV. Home console sales in the UK are at this point double were they were at the same stage in 2013, although the handheld market is down by almost a third.

Both the PS4 and Xbox One saw sales double week-on-week, with Xbox One again just edging ahead of its rival.

This continues Xbox One’s recent momentum, which has seen it reach 1m sales in the UK a little over 2m months after PS4 did the same, although it falls short of the barnstorming victory Microsoft’s machine apparently saw in the US over the weekend.

The gap between Xbox One and PS4 continues to narrow, with Xbox One deals a more visible presence than either PS4 or Wii U both on the High Street and online this weekend.