A winning combination of the most critically acclaimed holiday lineup of exclusives in Xbox history,* the New Xbox One Experience complete with Backward Compatibility, and an extensive line-up of console bundles, drove record Xbox One sales in the U.S.** and Xbox Store sales worldwide, with record engagement from Xbox fans around the world*** over Black Friday week.
- Xbox fans around the world spent a total of 325 million hours gaming on Xbox Live this past week. Hours spent playing games on Xbox One last week were up 196 percent compared to Black Friday week in 2014, and time spent using Xbox apps increased a whopping 321 percent.***
- Worldwide Xbox Black Friday sales in the Xbox Store broke records with an increase of 57 percent across Xbox One and Xbox 360, global Xbox Live Gold subscriptions were up over 40 percent, and U.S. Xbox One console sales at retail were up 22 percent over the same period last year, making it the second biggest Black Friday week in 15 years of Xbox history in the U.S.
- Total paid unique users in the Xbox Store also broke records with an increase of 55 percent across Xbox One and Xbox 360 compared to Black Friday week last year, with 88 percent growth on Xbox One alone.
- Hardware is hot this holiday – the Xbox One 500GB Gears of War: Ultimate EditionBundle was the best-selling Xbox console bundle. The Xbox Elite Wireless Controller has been met with high demand and was sold out at most major U.S. retailers since launch and we are working hard with retailers to replenish stock.
- Gamers have logged more than 4 million hours playing Xbox 360 games on Xbox One since Backward Compatibility launched on Nov. 12.
We’ve also seen incredible Windows 10 gaming momentum heading into the holidays:
- In November, hours spent gaming on Windows 10 exceeded Windows 8 for the first time ever.
- Since Windows 10 launched in July, gamers have streamed over 5 million hours of Xbox One game content to Windows 10 PCs with Fallout 4streamed the most frequently in November.
- Last month, nearly 30 percent of all Steam players played on Windows 10; there were six times more gamers playing Steam on Windows 10 than OSX and Linux combined.****
- Nearly 20 percent of all non-mobile devices are now running on Windows 10 — roughly double from just 3 month ago.*****
This is just the start to the holiday season. It’s an amazing holiday for Xbox fans, and we are thankful to the community for their passion for gaming on Xbox. Be sure to check out Microsoft’s 12 Days of Deals for special promotions and savings on select Xbox One console and games.
Xbox Breaks Black Friday Records; Windows 10 Gaming Continues to Rise - Xbox Wire
This reads like a publicity release. From what I have read Microsoft has not release any actual sales numbers for the Xbox One and the Sony Playstation 4 has sold close to 35 million units which has broken all previous Playstation records. Competition is good and it makes both platforms better, so I hope Microsoft will continue to support the Xbox One since their were rumors that they were loosing money on the Xbox platform and were considering selling it off.
It is a publicity release. The source link is news.xbox.com.This reads like a publicity release.
It does seem like Sony is likely to win this generation of the console wars. That said, MS working on crossplay between Xbox One and PC and adding XB1 to the Windows 10 ecosystem could bring about a pretty big boost to their console. Since each console generation has such a long life, there's still a long way to go. We'll see what happens, I guess.
Microsoft might lose money on the hardware itself, but they more than make up for that loss in licensing and xbox Live gold subscriptions.
I bought one a couple of days ago just to see what was happening in the world of games, all I can say is WOW. It's been a few years since I played any decent games but boy have they become real. Forza 6, Halo 5 and Just Cause 3 are enough justification to buy the machine let alone everything else.
You can also install Apps like Netflix and Vevo etc, watch TV through a TV tuner and in America hook up your cable TV. On top of all that, you can watch movies through DLNA or a HDD attached to the box. The only thing I don't like is not being able to use a wireless keyboard and mouse, you have to use a wired keyboard no mouse.
Oh yeah I forgot the ability to stream to my computer, absolutely awesome. I have the Xbox hooked up to the TV so when the wife wants to watch TV I just boot up the Xbox, change the source and play the Xbox on my computer and play Just Cause 2 or 3.
That is my favorite feature right now. Wife watches her shows and I get to play xb1 games on my laptop connected to a 27" 4k monitor.Oh yeah I forgot the ability to stream to my computer, absolutely awesome. I have the Xbox hooked up to the TV so when the wife wants to watch TV I just boot up the Xbox, change the source and play the Xbox on my computer and play Just Cause 2 or 3.
