The game of console sales number ping-pong continued today with Microsoft announcing that the Xbox One sold over three million consoles from its November 22 launch through the end of 2013. That announcement puts the ball back on Sony's side of the table, pressuring it to update the 2.1 million sales of the PS4 reported through December 1. For comparison, Microsoft was publicly targeting between 2.5 and 3.5 million sales of the Xbox 360 in its first 90 days on sale worldwide; the Xbox One has now hit that range in less than half the time.
The Xbox One's first million sales came in a single day at launch, and the second million took roughly 18 days more after that. Assuming current sales just crossed three million before the end of the year (a safe assumption, given that MS didn't trumpet, say, 3.1 million sales in 2013) the system's third million took about 20 days. That suggests the post-launch sales pace slowed only slightly through the holiday season.
Now that the holiday sales season is over, the safe bet is that the next million Xbox One (and PS4) sales will probably take a bit longer to materialize. Then again, it's possible the early adopter wave that has led to what Microsoft calls sellouts "at most retailers worldwide" will extend, Wii-like, for months into the new year.
Regardless, it's the coming 12 months, not the last 1.5, that are going to largely determine whether Sony or Microsoft can position their new console as the de facto market leader that developers and gamers should focus on—or if the systems will maintain relative market parity for a long time to come.
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