PS4 and XB1 install bases are 60% larger than their predecessors were after 15-months
And here we were thinking that God-Tier PC and mobile gaming were going to evaporate us luddite console cowboys. They may (probably) will yet, but not if this generation has anything to say about it.
The NPD Group’s latest report states that the current generation (also referred to as the 8th generation) of game consoles are selling remarkably well, and is in fact growing the market when compared to the previous generation of hardware.
“The combined hardware install base of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One,” said Liam Callahan, “is close to 60 percent higher than the cumulative hardware totals for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 at the same point in their lifecycles (after 15 months).”
Those numbers, Callahan told Polygon, do account for the different launch dates of the PS3 and the 360. “It adds up the 15 month total for 360 (starting from Nov. 2005) and the 15 month total for PS3 (starting from Nov. 2006).”
Console gaming is growing faster than it did nearly a decade ago, and that growth may accelerate as the consoles drop in price. Hardware isn’t the only area that’s seeing growth.
Software sales in total rose roughly 5 percent year over year, while the current generation software sales jumped by 74, versus a 36 percent decrease in software sales for the previous generation.
I have to say that I’m surprised by the sales of consoles for this latest generation. I bought into the hype that they were a dying breed, and but then I also bought both an XB1 and PS4 at launch. Sooo…¯\_(ツ)_/¯