Halo 5 does what it was designed to do – gets Xbox One back on top

The long-awaited arrival of the Master Chief on Xbox One has helped the console achieve a rare monthly win in the US.

November has become the second month of 2015 (the other being April) that Xbox One has outsold PS4 in the region. It did so thanks to an 81 per cent year-on-year increase in sales.

While PS4 still leads the US market, last year Xbox One managed to win both November and December – a trend Microsoft will be confident it can maintain.

We saw amazing fan excitement, commercial success and critical acclaim in October for Halo 5: Guardians, which was the best-selling game in the US,” Xbox marketing boss Mike Nichols said.

We also saw incredible reception for the new Xbox Elite Wireless Controller in October, which is now sold out at most retailers and we are working quickly to replenish stock. And October was just the start. Earlier this week Rise of the Tomb Raider and Fallout 4 launched, today the New Xbox One Experience including backward compatibility launched and many are looking forward to Star Wars Battlefront on November 17th – available today exclusively on Xbox One to EA Access members.

It’s going to be an amazing holiday for Xbox fans.”

Nintendo did not share any hardware data, but did say that Wii U software sales were up 40 per cent year-on-year for the month and are up 20 per cent for the year-to-date. 800k Amiibo figures and cards were also sold in the period, bringing total US sales to 9m.

The overall console market was flat at $270m, with declines in portables offsetting the 12 per cent rise in next-gen console sales. The overall US October video games market was worth $806m, up two per cent year-on-year, but down on September’s $1bn+.

PS4 and Xbox One posted 62 per cent year-on-year growth while last-gen machines plummeted by 63 per cent.

Here’s the October NPD Top Ten:

1. Halo 5: Guardians (Xbox One)
2. NBA 2K16 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
3. Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate (PS4, Xbox One)
4. Madden NFL 16 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
5. WWE 2K16 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
6. FIFA 16 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
7. Destiny: The Taken King (PS4, Xbox ONe, 360, PS3)
8. Yoshi’s Wooly World (Wii U)
9. Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection (PS4)
10. Rock Band 4 (Xbox One, PS4)

Guitar Hero, which came out far later in the month, finished just outside the Top Ten at no.11. Super Mario Maker missed out on a chart spot.