Did they beat their target? 

What if scalpers flipped November PS4s?

Switch taking the month against such strong competition on it's first Holiday season is HUGE.
There was no price cut, bundle or even big games released closed to the holidays, Mario Odyssey was out for more than a month at this point.

Honestly keeping in mind they want to sell 20+ in the next FY, I really think we will see strong titles for the end of the year. It really makes you wonder what is it's sale potential still, it's not like the Switch was pushed really hard during the holidays against PS4 + Star Wars bundle + movie hype and MS and their 189$ deal + new console.

Let's hope for some big announcements soon in a anniversary Direct with some 1st year number to celebrate. Really think it will be the best selling console of all time on it's first 12 months.

Yea well you get what I was going for ^^'

Wow ps4@3third place.

That 199price really backfired

I was right. XB1 lost every NPD this year. That's the first time this happen, if we exclude 2013, because you know, it was only 2 months.

October 2016 was the last time XB1 won. And will remain the last.

XB1 will never win a single NPD month ever again.

You can have thousands of exclusive to a platform, if there not marketed right than they wont benefit the sales.

COD comes out on most platforms, the system that markets and advertises it the best makes the most sales.

Exclusives are just games. The X and Switch proved you dont need a bunch of games to sell hardware. Advertising and deals sell consoles.

Exclusives have and always will be the bragging rights that lead no where. There the cherry on top but not the base of the cake.

Lets not forget the Switch also caters to a much larger audience as its also the successor to the popular 3DS. The Xbox on paper has more exclusive games than the Switch at launch and probably still does yet the Switch is killing both Xbox and PS4 in sales.. so why is less selling more? Marketing, audience, deals, advertisements. Exclusives is just a bonus. Steam doesnt offer any new exclusive games, they thrive off multiplats yet its the leading gaming software on the marker (i am excluded all the trash, shovel ware and green light games which make up majority of Steams exclusives.)

And what was that made the 3DS so popular and do so well? Its exclusive games above all else, because the 3D gimmick certainly wasn't what attracted its userbase, it was Mario Kart, Pokemon, Animal Crossing, Monster Hunter, Smash Bros., etc. You absolutely need exclusives to sell your hardware. Would the Switch be anywhere near as successful as it has been if it didn't have Breath of the Wild at launch? Or Mario Kart a month later? Or Splatoon 2 in the summer? Or Mario Odyssey right before the holidays? Those are 4 Huge First Party Nintendo titles from 3 of their biggest franchises that helped sell their new system. 

Also, of course the Xbox will have more exclusive games than the Switch does at launch, one system has been out for over 4 years, and the other has been out for 10 months, I would hope the Xbox has more exclusives at the moment, otherwise there's a serious problem.  And here's another thing, the Xbox One is competing directly with the PS4 and getting its ass kicked left, right, and center. Because the PS4 has a better, stronger, and more diverse exclusive library, to go along with all the 3rd parties that both systems share. So, why would I want to buy an Xbox One to play all these games, when I can buy a PS4 to get those same games, plus all these extra exclusives that they have over the Xbox One? 

The video game market is a momentum based market, and right now, Sony has all of the momentum on their side. How do you think the PS3 was able to make up the ground and pass the 360, despite launching one year later and being $200 more expensive? Exclusives. And damn good ones too. The PS3 had the same amount of 3rd party games the 360 did, but all Microsoft had as noteworthy exclusives were Halo, Gears of War, Kinect, Forza, and Fable. Meanwhile, Sony had Uncharted, Gran Turismo, Metal Gear Solid IV, LittleBigPlanet, God of War, Last of Us, Heavy Rain, InFamous, Killzone, Ratchet & Clank, the list goes on. The PS3 had a bigger, more diverse, and critically acclaimed exclusive library than the 360, to go along with all the 3rd party games they shared. So, it ultimately didn't matter if Xbox was the "home" of Call of Duty during that generation, because Sony was able to build upon their exclusive library, making a more attractive all around library than the 360, and building more and more momentum in their favor until they eventually caught up with Microsoft and passed them. And that momentum continued into the launch of their successors and kept building in Sony's favor to the point that we are at now. The PS4 is a very distant first place at 70-75 million, while the Xbox One is a distant 2nd place at 30-35 million. 

Having great hardware and marketing establishes presence and gets your brand out there, but it's exclusives and first party games, great ones and lots of them, that push the hardware and your brand forward. Until Microsoft realizes that and really starts cracking down and busting out more exclusives and more first party titles in quantity, quality, and diversity, it'll be the same old song and dance when the next Xbox is trying to compete with the PS5. 

Not surprisingly wrong once again. Nintendo does not cater to a much larger audience. Nintendo caters to their fans with the gameplay and franchises that they want. And along with that most importantly is quality. This is why Nintendo continues to gain an audience generation after generation. You cater to your core audience and others will notice. Why do you think characters and franchises such as Mario, Yoshi, Metroid, Donkey Kong, Pokemon, Etc have all stood the test of time while all are Nintendo exclusives? This is why they are still in the console Hardware business because fans know what to expect from Nintendo  regardless of how well their Hardware sells.

I don't get why people are so surprised. While Sony had killed deals for BF, in December they simply increased the priced to normal levels and only packed in a Star Wars cassino game. I just don't understand why, the only reasonable explanations would be either greed or running out of stock due to BF.