November NPD Number Crunch: Xbox One outsells PS4 for the first time since ...

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare tops charts, while GTAV returns to the software top ten

Despite November witnessing the official launch of several major gaming titles across all platforms, the NPD Group earlier today confirms that industry sales in the U.S. still ended up falling 11 percent year-over-year to $2.41 billion USD. What's more, November 2014 marked the first time since the launch of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles that hardware sales actually fell ($1.10 billion compared to $1.31 billion in November 2013). On the plus side, monthly software sales didn't suffer from a similarly drastic drop for a change, sliding just one percent year-over-year to $1.09 billion.

Now the part you're probably more interested in: did the Xbox One manage to beat the PS4 in sales last month like Microsoft boasted? While NPD's monthly report card failed to provide unit sales numbers as usual, Microsoft already announced that the Xbox One managed to reclaim the crown for best-selling console hardware in both the U.S. and U.K. during November. The Xbox One will ring in a fine anniversary for the last time it outsold the PS4, assuming the console can keep the momentum through this December. MIcrosoft also confirms that Xbox One software outsold those for the PS4 in November, making for a record-setting month for the number of Xbox Live users.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare perhaps predictably topped the industry charts on the software front for November, though interestingly the best-selling platform for Activision's latest CoD entry would prove to be the Xbox 360. Grand Theft Auto V also makes a triumphant return to the NPD software top ten thanks to the high-definition re-release of Rockstar's record-setting game on PS4 and Xbox One, with the PS4 version selling the best.

Nintendo also made a fine showing for itself with no less than three titles on the NPD software top ten. You'll never ever guess what their bestselling game in November was (honest!), but you may be interested to learn that Pokemon Alpha Sapphire was the better selling Generation VI game, outpacing even Ubisoft's Far Cry 4. Guess you can't have too much water in Hoenn after all. Speaking of Ubisoft, Assassin's Creed: Unity still managed to land in ninth place in spite of its technical woes.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection meanwhile barely squeezed into the charts, highlighting another platform exclusive title which managed to make NPD's software top ten.