Xbox One wins US December race, but PS4 wins 2014 and Wii U has best month

Microsoft’s Xbox One was the best-selling console in the US throughout December 2014, the platform holder has revealed.

It mirrors not only the success it had the month before but also in December 2013. It also sold more games than PS4 throughout the period and average weekly sales were better than those posted by Xbox 360 at the same point in its life.

However, for 2014 as a whole it was PS4 that emerged as the best-selling console in not only the US but also worldwide. PS4 is now the fastest selling console in PlayStation history and sold 4.1m units worldwide over the Christmas period.

Continuing the cheer, it was a also a decent month for Nintendo with Wii U selling more in December than it has in any previous month, jumping 29 per cent year-on-year. Software sales climbed 75 per cent compared to December 2013.

NPD numbers show that US games console hardware sales overall were down in December from $1.37bn in 2013 to $1.31bn. For 2014 as a whole, however, hardware jumped 20 per cent to $5.07bn.

Software sales fell 13 per cent to $5.30bn although, as with the UK, the legitimacy of the numbers is always open to question.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare was the best-selling title of both December and 2014 as a whole.

Here’s the US December Top Ten:
1. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (Activision)
2. Grand Theft Auto V (Rockstar)
3. Madden NFL 15 (EA)
4. Super Smash Bros (Nintendo)
5. NBA 2K15 (2K Games)
6. Minecraft (Microsoft/Sony)
7. Far Cry 4 (Ubisoft)
8. Just Dance 2015 (Ubisoft)
9. Destiny (Activision)
10. FIFA 15 (EA)

And the annual 2014 Top Ten (for new physical releases)
1. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (Activision)
2. Madden NFL 15
3. Destiny (Activision)
4. Grand Theft Auto V (Rockstar)
5. Minecraft (Microsoft/Sony)
6. Super Smash Bros (Nintendo)
7. NBA 2K15 (2K Games)
8. Watch Dogs (Ubisoft)
9. FIFA 15 (EA)
10. Call Of Duty: Ghosts (Activision)