Xbox 360 US sales in July 2013 cut nearly in half compared to 2012

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While Microsoft is preparing for the launch of the Xbox One in about three months, at least in some parts of the world, the company is still selling its nearly eight year old Xbox 360 console. This week, the company announced that it sold 107,000 Xbox 360 units in the US in July 2013, but that number is well off what sold just a year ago.

 

 

Microsoft's announcement was highly boastful, claiming that the numbers were the highest of any other console for the 31st straight month in the US. However, the reality is that the 107,000 consoles sold by Microsoft in July were nearly half as many sold in the US in July 2012, when the company said it sold 203,000 units.

 

There's another caveat to Microsoft's claim as well. While the Xbox 360 may have been the best selling home console in the US in July, numbers from the NPD Group, as reported by Gamesindustry International, show that the Nintendo 3DS portable console sold more units than the Xbox 360 for the third straight month in the US. While specific unit numbers were not mentioned for the 3DS, the NPD Group said it sold 14 percent more consoles than in July 2012.

 

Unfortunately, the 3DS was the bright spot in the video game retail sales numbers in July. The NPD Group said that overall video game sales (combining hardware, software and accessories) went down 19 percent to $443 million for the month.The best selling game in the US in July was NCAA Football 14 for the Xbox 360 and PS3, followed by Minecraft for the Xbox 360 and The Last of Us for the PS3.