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IGN Publishes Next Gen Console Sales Chart

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Popular games publication IGN has produced a chart showcasing how well each of the next generation consoles have done since they launched. The site says that Sony has sold 4.2 million PlayStation 4 consoles from November 15th to December 28th which is around six weeks. The Xbox One has sold 3 million consoles from November 22nd through December 31st which is a period of about 5.5 weeks.

However, the site notes that Nintendo has only provided sales figures from October when they announced 3.91 million Wii U’s were sold worldwide. Interestingly, estimates from the November and December sales periods range from 4.5 million to 5.2 million total. We won’t get official numbers until the investors meeting this month. Here’s what IGN had to say about the launches:

IGN: We can draw three real conclusions from these stats:

1) The Wii U is in real trouble.

Both Sony and Microsoft nearly erased Nintendo’s year-long lead in a matter of weeks. Both consoles will be in more homes than the Wii U soon, if they aren’t already.

2) The console business is extremely healthy.

PC gaming may be thriving. Mobile gaming may be thriving. But it seems neither category is growing at the expense of the traditional game console. It’s impressive to see just how much stronger and faster the launch of the PS4 and Xbox One were when compared with the problem-plagued launches of the PS3 and Xbox 360.

3) We have a long way to go.

Fanboys can quibble over launch figures all they want, and they do matter – momentum is extremely important. But with both the Xbox One and PS4 likely to sell 80 million+ units in their lifetime, no one should spend much energy getting overly excited about the first couple million. It’s still the opening few minutes of the game.

Thanks, Skid

188 thoughts on “IGN Publishes Next Gen Console Sales Chart”

      1. it also says on the bottom
        “Wii U data does not include November or December”
        thats kinda dumnb to include a chart like this then…but even if the data was included, we all know that the WiiU does need to improve. (the freakin ps4 is on a path to out selling WiiU…. thats just not good)

      2. Agreed, although I think it’s safe to say that Sony fans should feel safe for a few months. Once it becomes Mid 2014, that should paint us a decently clear picture of how things will end up

            1. Looks like i’m the idiot because I don’t even know what that means. Also, I was only joking please don’t take it seriously, i’m sure you’re well educated and have good grades :)
              “Everything you see on the internet is a lie anyway”-Abraham Lincoln.

              1. LOL!! It’s not an insult. To put it shortly, I was saying that your comment was hurtful in a jokingly way.

                Thanks. No harm done :)

                  1. The pointless arguments about the Wii U and the PS4 is just for fun (well, at least for me). As great as it would be for Nintendo to go back to their old roots, they’re still a fantastic company with highly talented developers. Even though their systems aren’t the most powerful, their games will always be one of the greatest :)

                  2. Well we do. Perhaps all the hate and Nintendo bashing will backfire and push Nintendo to snap. I think the reason why Sony has been so chummy-chumy to Nintendo as of late is because they don’t want Nintendo to go Super Saiyan on the indurstry and start making AAA titles that span all genres like they did back in the 80s and 90s and even with the Gamecube in the 00s. Nintendo was making first-person shooters, third-person shooters, fighting games, survival-horror, action-adventure, RPGs, racing sims, hack-n-slash, sports games, puzzle games, plaformers, party games, everything. They have become too one-dimensional but those who hate Nintendo want NO PARTS of that version. Trust me.

                    1. Agree. The old Nintendo would output a bunch of different types of games for all types of gamers. They had awesome 2nd party studios like Rare, Left Field, Silicon Knights, the excellent relationship with Factor 5, etc. Now all their focus is on one type of game (baby games). If you not into that type of games there nothing to play on the Wii U, no exclusive non baby games from Nintendo that you can’t get anywhere else.

    1. They apparently ‘erase’ Wii U sales totals from October, November, and December 2013 that conveniently do not appear on this chart. Pretty powerful stuff.

      1. They don’t show on the chart because nothing official has been given. They note that in the article. These numbers are based on the latest official numbers from the companies. Nothing “convenient” about that.

        1. Nothing official has been given……..o_O………thanks Captain Obvious.

          The latest “official” statement on Wii U sales from Nintendo was that AFTER October Wii U sales have gone up 340%. I guess in the statement of “The Wii U is in trouble” they forgot to mention that.

          1. Why make such ignorant comments then, if it’s so obvious? They can’t put numbers if those numbers haven’t officially been given. Do you want them to pull some BS number out of the air? *Then* they would really have reason to be scolded for not being accurate in their chart. At least with this chart, they are basing it off of the latest facts that have been given officially.

            Nothing was “erased” or “conveniently” left out as you said.

    2. Anothe highly unprofessional and biased IGN article, based on old and innacurate data, ignoring holiday sales, ignoring handheld sales, ignoring comparisons between 2012 and 2013. Fact is that even with the record launches of the PS4 and Xbox and a healthy 3DS the market continues to shrink since 2010. Every year the consoles sales are down and it will probably continue to do so in 2014

    3. once the PS4 gets some games then I’ll agree with your statement…for now I will stick with my Wii U and enjoy all of the games that it has to offer and there are plenty of those…and yes I do own a PS4….and it just collects dust…hopefully that changes when Shadows of Mordor releases and Lords of the Fallen…

  1. Except the WiiU is actually catching up. It outsold the Xbone over the holiday season. And ironically considering how it’s been the past year, it’s the only of the three with games lol

      1. VG Chartz data claimed it did for a week. But VG Chartz data isn’t at all reliable. Official NPD data should be coming very soon. Anyone know the date?

        1. It usually comes around the second week of a month, but its not posted to the public, only retail, distributors and the content providers. You won’t get solid Wii U numbers until the stock report release, its all just estimates like VG Chartz.

          1. Nintendo generally send out a press release detailing software sales (and sometimes hardware). If Wii U sales are good we should hopefully get numbers as we have with 3DS. Fingers crossed! Otherwise as you said, it’s going to be estimates. I’m thinking next Thursday…

            1. Just doing soft checks on Target and Bestbuy in metro areas in the US, they were frequently out of stock. So its a good sign.

    1. except wiiu launched cheaper, with less competition, and when retailers slash prices by themselve. And ps4 or xb1 also have no games. LOL

          1. Everybody wanted Wii U to fail me thinks, Even I wanted it to fail, I thought it was the biggest piece of shit ever until I actually got a chance to try it out. 90% of gamers right now are like how I was before I got one.

          1. The chart doesn’t include November or December sales, and some guy on bottom of this page posted a link saying it doesn’t include October sales either. Wii U isn’t selling as bad as most people think.

            1. The Wii U has been out for over a year now (almost a year with that data) and the Xbox One and PS4, not even two months. So…. That’s kind of the point.

      1. These aren’t true facts. IGN is jumping the gun on this one, they should have waited until Nintendo released an official sales report, come on Adarazz, that’s common sense. Derp.

        1. Why though ? The figures of november and december won’t change the fact that both the PS4 and XboxOne nearly, or even did, outsell the WiiU within a couple of weeks. And that’s pretty damn embarassing for Nintendo, if you ask me, since the WiiU had a headstart of a whole year without any real next-gen competition, and instead of using that chance, they did literally nothing. They thought just because the whole thing worked with the Wii, it would work out just fine with the WiiU as well. But it won’t be as easy, unless they pump the WiiU with shovelware and casual games too. Not saying that’s a bad thing for Nintendo, since they can achieve high sales with those games, but it’s not necessarily good for the real Nintendo fans and supporters, obviously.
          But anyway, my point is, both the PS4 and XboxOne managed to achieve unbelievably well sale numbers, compared to the WiiU, even though their libraries don’t have nearly as much variety as the WiiU’s does and even though the WiiU had a huge headstart, which Nintendo has unfortunately completely wasted.

  2. to be honest, is still TOOO EARLY to compare
    Specially since the X-One and Ps4 just came out
    also, is incredible the WiiU has sold more than the X-Gone

  3. Yup Nintendo is in problems with WiiU, lower price and some actual (baby) games aren’t helping much. Well only in Japan, only on holiday season.

  4. ABADON THE CONSOLE MARKET NINTENDO, THAT WII U(R SHIT) IS GONNA DRIVE YOU INTO BANKRUPTCY!!!

    PS4 RAPES “COMPETITION” (IT IS, A TABLET AND A VIDEOCASSETTE)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  5. Well Wii U sales for November and December do not count, someone should find out how much Wii U sold in November and half of December then add it to the chart to make a better chart :)

            1. Lets see. N64 fights PS2, GCN fights PS2, piece of shit fights PS3, Wii U fights PS4. Wii U is piece of shit’s successor, and PS4 is PS3’s successor, so yeah they’re no- OH WAIT!!!

              1. Not alot of people like the Wii, even though it has most of the highest rated games ever made, such a shame :P

                  1. Finally someone else who enjoyed it, Mine had more playtime than my PS3, mostly because of the really fun family games it had.

                      1. Wii sold more than it’s rivals, and Wii U is still selling more than it’s rivals even though it looks like one of them is going to overtake them in sales. If not market leader, then at least the runner-up.

                          1. Yeah I know. You said the Wii is the reason why Nintendo is the market leader again.

                            I’m just saying the 3DS is a better example. Since it’s leading the handheld market.

                          2. It’s not selling more? Are you crazy? Ps4 has been out less than 2 months and it’s sells are through the roof.

                1. Yeah, it seems like it sometimes. I take IGN with a huge grain of salt cause it owned by the same company as Fox News and The Sun.

            2. In the bottom of the image. IGN is not counting the Nintendo sales in the holiday season. The text is faded away under the image.
              Pretty lame from IGN.

              1. Wow I didn’t notice that.

                Double…….o_O

                I wish that I could say I am surprised by something like this but…I’m not.

                1. Indeed. IGN is throwing turd to Nintendo, and glorifying XOne and PS4 lately. If you’re going to make a videogame page, you should, no, you MUST be neutral. Although I love Nintendo, I have some issues with it, as well with Sony and Microsoft.

        1. Pingback: IGN Publishes Next Gen Console Sales Chart | Gamerz N Geekz

        2. I like how they casually put an asterisk saying that the Wii U sales don’t account for November or December (or October if you look at the sales site for Japan).

        3. If this is only for 11 months of the Wii U then that obviously does not include the sales from Black Friday onward or even November period. The Wii U launched in November of last year so 11 months would put it at September to October.

          o_O………..really IGN? Are you that desperate.

        4. We get stupidly obsessed by these sales figures. We should remember that what’s important to these businesses is the bottom line. In that regard, Xbone and PS4 will fail like 360 and PS3 did.

        5. Before trolls come here and post shit, you have to understand that the average straight male and teenager is very insecure and thinks that only shooting, mature, racing, and all that shit gaming and consoles is cool and see Nintendo as kiddy, and they are the ones that play home consoles the most and buy them, most straight men think GTA it’s the coolest shit ever and every day there’s more and more teenagers that flow the market plus the adults, look at Justin Bieber, all the millions of teenagers buying his shit. Now we have not only the teenagers buy also the aduls who see the PS4 as cool and super powerful so they bought it like crazy at launch, while the Wii didn’t have kids, nor these “mature” playing games gamers, not even parents, grandmas, or hardcore gamers, ’cause there wasn’t big titles announced at launch and they didn’t really make the new controller seem as an amazing thing.

          At the end, all the teenager are going crazy now for shooting games and they are the ones that buy consoles now and Nintendo is lacking that, so Nintendo needs to stop with the 3434345465 Marios and give us variety, I mean, I love both “mature” games and “kiddy” games BUT I don’t see them like that! I just see them like games with different content! One is all happy and cute and the other one is all bloody and more violent, but remember when Nintendo was the one with Resident Evil 4 as an exclusive? Remember when they had games like Eternal Darkness and Perfect Dark? If Nintendo just keeps selling Mario, Mario, Mario, only Mario fans will buy Nintendo consoles.

          I don’t want Nintendo to become a “mature cool” console with the same games as the Xbox and PS4, ’cause let’s be honest, those two are almost the same shit, I want Nintendo to continue giving us amazing games like Mario Galaxy, but give us more variety, stop focusing in families and kids only, give us at least a Eternal Darkness and the next Zelda to cater to the hardcore audience not to the family, you have Wii Fit for that!

          Also, Nintendo didn’t built up excitement as Sony did, I remember Iwata with the controller at his hand and he was just showing it without any jaw dropping game showing and the console didn’t look very different from the Wii. Big mistakes.

          Anyways, Sony not only has the dude bro teenage market and the adult market right now, they made their console look cool and super modern, and built up hype, while Nintendo release only an HD version of New Super Mario Bros., Nintendo will sell more than the Xbox One, ’cause let’s be honest, the Xbox One won’t sell shit in Japan, but hey, maybe Sony will win this gen, but at least we won the last one, can’t win them all!

          1. One of nintendos biggest problems is iwata’s big head. He is a terrible speaker ( in English). They need to kick him off the stage and let Reggie do ALL the selling….

        6. Some people here are hopeless. The Wii U isn’t doing well at all and that’s the fact. The Xbone sold nearly as many units in a few weeks as the Wii U did in several months.
          Whether it’s a good console or not isn’t the point; numbers do not lie and Nintendo half-assed its marketing, that is irrefutable

          1. The wii u sold poorly in the past is a fact. Wii u selling poorly currently is your opinion as we don’t have the data from Nintendo. That is why this is a stupid chart by idiots at ign. It’s not comparing apples to apples. They COULD have waited a week or so more…bu nah…that would require journalistic integrity….

            1. ”Wii U not selling well currently is your opinion”
              Lol what? It had a small boost sure but not enough to compensate for the fact that its fiscal year as a whole was lackluster.

            1. Just stating the facts bro. Nintendo should have stayed with the Gamecube. Anyway, I (kinda) like the Wii U, but I definitely prefer the PS4. It’s a true gaming console. No gimicks, just really fun games!

                1. No no, I meant Gamecube-like. I know that Gamecube didn’t really sell that well and people considered it to be “Backwards” because it wasn’t as strong, but I’m just talking quality wise. Out of my top 100 games of all time, over 50 of them are on the Gamecube. They had many of my favorite Nintendo games of all time. Star Fox Assault, F Zero GX, Mario Sunshine, Smash Bros Melee, Kirby Air Ride (I know, it’s underrated, but I love that game) etc. After that, it feels like Nintendo isn’t putting as much effort. They’re not the only ones to blame. Sega has basically given up on making a real Sonic game nowadays and Capcom has ditched Mega Man. These are dark times for some of the companies and I feel like they should go back to the basics. Anyway, they’re predictions based on true facts that have been posted in a misleading way. (Wii U not counting several months)

                  1. A GameCube-like console would be the best thing a gamer could wish for, Also Capcom should really sell some of it’s IP’s to Nintendo, or another developer. I wouldn’t be surprised if Nintendo just bought them.

                    1. That would be great and Capcom would be wise to consider the idea. Mega Man would work perfectly as a Nintendo product and they would make the most out of him. Capcom has been ignoring him for far too long. Imagine a 3D Mega Man game like Legends, but by the LoZ or Mario producers? That would be awesome!

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        8. Wii u reminds me very much of the n64. Back then, the n64 was selling just as “bad” compared to ps1 and then Xbox. Everyone Hated n64. There was no 3rd party support for it. All the big gaming sites and hardcore gamers mocked nintendo.

          Here’s the thing….name ONE game from that era on ps1. Remember any? The best I can do is ff7 Few do. While the crappy old n64 went on to have games that people still think are the best ever….mario64, ocarina, goldeneye, banjo, the first smash bros, the best mariokart to date, starfox64…funny how the console that sold the least, somehow had all the best games…

          1. the only few i love and remember from that era are the ones that sold bad but where great A fe exsamples are: alundra,tomba and brave fencer musashi has worty to be remeberd on the n64 iloved almost everything except superman.

          2. Spyro
            Crash
            Final Fantasy
            Oddworld
            Persona
            Tomb Raider
            Rayman
            Wipeout
            Silent Hill
            Medal of Honour
            Tony Hawks Skating
            Chrono Cross
            Driver
            Resident Evil
            Xenogears
            Metal Gear Solid
            Gran Taurismo

          3. Resident Evil
            Crash Bandicoot
            Spyro the Dragon
            Persona
            Chrono Cross
            Final Fantasy 7-8-9
            Castevania symphony of the night
            Metal Gear Solid
            Xenogears

            Just because you’ve never played or don’t remember those games doesn’t mean it’s the same for everyone else; don’t over-generalize. And that’s coming from someone who actually never owned the original playstation.

        9. well the sales of the Wii U are going up a lot now for China lifted their ban on video game consoles after an whole decade

            1. Ps4 hasn’t even been out for two months. Nintendo needs to take a gamble, do something risky, to get people to come back.

        10. Why does so many people want Nintendo to go away? Competition is always good. Wanna know what happens without competition? Systembolaget in Sweden is what happens. They’re the only one that sells alcohol over here, so the prices can go really high because they don’t have to compete with anybody.

          1. Nintendo isn’t necessary as competition in the home console space. They do not push graphics, online, features, or game design.

            1. Microsoft is the most unnecessary to gaming since N-Gage
              Microsoft does not do anything, that someone else is not already doing.
              Except for bullshit policies.

            2. Nintendo is the spice of the console industry, each console is and feels vastly diffirent from the last one while Sony´s motto seems to be “same but better”, even their handhelds are trying to be mini versions of their consoles.. Seriously going from PS2 to PS3 was about as exciting as updating your PC with a new memory card.

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        12. Pingback: IGN Publishes Next Gen Console Sales Chart

        13. If I drew anything from this, it was that the Wii U needs some damn games and better publicity. Smash and Mario Kart alone will not save the console.

        14. Great… so now a whole bunch of ill-informed Sony fans are running around thinking the PS4 is number one in sales right now… -_-

        15. weird, everyone here is spamming(and yet sickr is laughing around) about how low the WiiU sells are and yet the Holiday sales are not counted on the WiiU, and it was reported that the Holiday sales on WiiU are way more than the X-One and almost near(if not more) than the Ps4’s

          so, they are comparing data from actual dates vs 2 month old sale on the WiiU

          THIS SEEMS FUCKING LOGICAL

          also, sickr, please, stop scratching whatever you are scratching and do a damn thing about this goddamn spammers

        16. In Joker’s voice : “Wanna know why I hate Xbox? My father was an Xbot, and a fiend. And one night, he goes off crazier than usual. Mommy gets the Wii U to defend herself. He doesn’t like that. Not one bit. So me watching, he takes the Xbox One to her, laughing while he does it. He turns to me and says “Why so serious son?”. He comes at me with the Xbox One. “Why so serious son?!”. Then he sticks the controller in my hands. “Let’s put a smile on that face.” And you better hug me for this. =) The horror!

        17. Through reading the original article (and comments) seems as though PS4 and Xbox1 sold pretty much all stock in the launch window, so their ‘beating eachother’ was just who can produce more consoles.

          Wii U sold 2 Mil in the same time frame (6-8 weeks).

          Interesting that all consoles this gen destroyed PS3/360 launches – they look quite bad compared to their success.

          Wii U is still leading the numbers (even with it’s terribly appalling marketing) when taking account of holiday sales, also it had a fairly good launch.

          Now the X1 & PS4 will have a stagenated year, and if Ninty picks up on Advertising it should make gains on their games coming out in 2014.

          1. Takes one to know one.
            What awaits? A dry list of PlayStation launch titles, and no interesting first parties coming this year besides Infamous? Yeah, greatness awaits…

        18. So? PS4 comes in 1st in the end, Wii U comes in 2nd in the end, Xbox One comes in last in the end. Big fucking deal. Plus PS4 and Xbox One are in doubts now. The numbers as of now are just from the launch window explosion. From March-November sales of both will be pretty low.

        19. before any fucking idiot keeps spamming
          read:

          weird, everyone here is spamming(and yet sickr is laughing around) about how low the WiiU sells are and yet the Holiday sales are not counted on the WiiU, and it was reported that the Holiday sales on WiiU are way more than the X-One and almost near(if not more) than the Ps4′s

          so, they are comparing data from actual dates vs 2 month old sale on the WiiU

          THIS SEEMS FUCKING LOGICAL

          also, sickr, please, stop scratching whatever you are scratching and do a damn thing about this goddamn spammers

          1. STOP TAKING UR LIFE SO SERIOUSLY. ITS TIME TO GO OUTSIDE.
            GET A LIFE AND BETTER START WORRYING ABOUT IMPORTANT THINGS.
            LET THE PS4 SMASH THAT COMPETITION.

        20. i want some good news some exciting news im so bored…. right now with them… i have a bunch of games but still i want to go crazy with nintendo hype and i havnt done that since e3 2013….

        21. Sooo, what you’re saying is…

          Wii U outsold xBox One in 2013!!!

          – see, positive stories can be spun and embelished just as easily as negative ones! lol.

              1. Ahh right,

                in that case “Wii U was the #1 selling new console in 2013”

                hah.. …. if they can omit Wii U sales #’s for the same 2 months that the others were only just available for why can’t I dodge around the fact that the new ones were only available for 2 months out of the year?

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        23. this is really ridicoulus, cause they say themselves that today it’s not clear if ps4&xboxone will sell as well as at launch in the coming months. they also say that wii u had a very good start and went down the following months – same could happen to ps4&xbox one, nobody knows if the mass market will embrace this new consoles as most people even don’t know that there are new generation consoles out now. most of my friends and colleagues don’t know that there is a wii u, ps4 oder xboxone available now, they all play their smartphone games or use the old-gen consoles.

        24. What is most funny in comments are people saying “it doesn’t involve november, december, not fare for wiiu” lol. while it’s a comparison of how consoles sold in 5-6 weeks, and they had to put a wiiu comparison at 11 months because that’s how little it sold. if they put wiiu when it launched on it’s november-december cycle, it would stand proudly at 1.1 million lol.

        25. The question is, do I care?

          The answer to that is, no.

          GameCube didn’t sell all that much, but was a better system than the original Xbox. The Wii printed Nintendo a couple of mint reserves, but the 360 is held in greater regard. The PS4 has sold 4.2 million units in six weeks? So? Sony’s still in financial trouble, and the PS4 still doesn’t have that one game that warrants me purchasing one at present. The Wii U had three at launch (NSMBU, ZombiU and Sonic Racing Transformed), and has at least six more on top of that. I own them all. Funny, that.

          Also, IGN as a source of information? VGChartz is more reliable. My arse is more reliable. The happy-go-lucky five-year old who believes fairies are real and we live in a magical place despite economic austerity is more reliable. 2014 should be a great year for games, so let’s play out the year ahead!

        26. LMFAO at the Nintendo guzzlers bragging does not include Wii U November and December numbers!!
          OK lets include them numbers and the Wii U lifetime now stands at 5.1 Million in OVER 13 MONTHS on the market!!
          The PS4 has sold 4.2 Million in 6 WEEKS!!!!!!!!!And STILL has the Japan launch to come in February!!!
          After the PS4 launches in Japan it will EASILY over take Wii U lifetime sales and would have done that feat in just over 3 months on the market!!!!
          Fact is the PS4 is off to a better 6 weeks than the Wii!!!
          Poor Nintendo guzzlers!!!
          HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAH

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