After all of the debates last year about which console ‘is the best’, Microsoft has just revealed that sales for the Xbox 360 during the Christmas 2008 period, were almost double those of Christmas 2007 in Europe. The gap between the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360 has grown significantly due to the increase in Xbox 360 sales up to the end of 2008. Factors which have affected the growth spurt include the releases of more family games, such as ‘Lips’, ‘Scene It: Box Office Smash’ and ‘Rock Band 2′ and the launch of the New Xbox Experience. GfK-ChartTrack data shows that the Xbox 360 was the fastest-growing console in 2008, beating the Playstation 3 and the Nintendo Wii.
Chris Lewis, Regional Vice President, Interactive Entertainment Business EMEA, said “With eight million consoles sold since we launched, and consistently out-selling PlayStation 3 in EMEA, we’re poised to build on this success in 2009.”
Ontop of this success, new figures have just been released that show the Xbox 360 was the second ‘most played’ console last year. As you can see below, the Xbox 360 was the ‘most played’ next-gen console last year, and Microsoft’s first console the ‘Xbox’ was even more played than the ‘Playstation 3′!
Not surprised, the PS3 is getting left behind it seems. Shame really.