PS4 outstrips Xbox One to become UK's fastest selling console

The console war is on and it seems, in the UK at least, first blood has gone to Sony. Industry news source MCV is reporting that the PlayStation 4 shifted 250,000 units in the UK within 48 hours of its launch on Friday, smashing sales records for a new console. The Xbox One sold 150,000 machines in the UK during its own launch period following release on 22 November.

The figure quoted by MCV comes from official industry sales monitor Chart-Track, which will have released it on Monday morning to subscribing publishers and retailers. It means the PS4 is now the UK's fastest selling console, beating the previous record-holder, the Sony PSP handheld, which shifted 185,000 units on its launch in 2005. It's also a long way ahead of the UK PlayStation 3 launch, which managed 165,000 units in 2007.

Furthermore, Chart-Track software sales figures for last week show that the PS4 versions of most key multiplatform releases - including Battlefield 4 and Fifa 14 – outsold other platforms; apart from in the case of number one selling title Call of Duty: Ghosts, which shifted more copies on Xbox 360.

The news will be especially sobering to Nintendo. The company's Wii U console, launched last November, managed sales of just 40,000 in its opening UK weekend. Regional year one sales for the beleaguered console have not yet been confirmed, but a retail source indicated to MCV that the figure for the UK is not much above 150,000 units. PlayStation 4 launch title Knack, which has attracted mediocre reviews, charted one place higher, at 13, than the critically acclaimed Super Mario 3D World.

:story: The Guardian