Though the PlayStation 4 has largely outsold the Xbox One for the last year, Microsoft's next-gen console has picked up some steam this holiday season.
The Xbox One unseated the PS4 to become the top-selling console in November, Microsoft announced Friday, citing data from The NPD Group.
"November set a new record for sales of Xbox One, and Xbox One was the best-selling console in the U.S. and U.K.," Microsoft said in a statement. "Response to the holiday lineup of games on Xbox One was incredible, with Xbox One fans buying more games in November in the U.S. than any other gen-eight platform and enjoying over 357 million hours of gameplay globally." Redmond added that fans logged into Xbox Live across Xbox One and Xbox 360 more than any other month in the game system's history.
Microsoft gave its Xbox One a $50 discount for the holiday season. Earlier this year, it also started offering a version of its console without the Kinect sensor, bringing the price down another $100.
Overall, according to NPD, sales of new gaming hardware, software, and accessories in the U.S. declined 11 percent year over year last month to $2.41 billion, the analyst firm said.
Hardware sales took the biggest hit, falling 23 percent to $1.01 billion, largely due to an "expected drop" in sales of older consoles like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 . Sales of next-gen consoles also saw a drop, and "represented 38 percent of the total declines in hardware sales from November 2013 to November 2014," NPD's Liam Callahan, said in a statement.
The Xbox One and PS4 were released in November 2013, however, so neither company was likely to replicate or exceed those console sales numbers (2 million in 18 days for Xbox One and 1 million PS4s in 24 hours) this November.
Together, sales of the Xbox One and PS4 are almost 80 percent higher than the combined total of PS3 and Xbox 360 after 13 months on the market, NPD said.
Meanwhile, it appears that hardware bundles are hotter than ever. "Hardware bundles were a major factor in the sales of hardware this November, with a number of new bundles ranking as the highest selling hardware bundles so far this year with one bundle ranking as the highest selling hardware bundle ever based on dollar sales," Callahan said.
Popular games in November included Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Grand Theft Auto V, Super Smash Bros., Madden NFL 15, and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire.
For more, check out Xbox One vs. PlayStation 4: Top Consoles Compared. Also see the slideshows above, which highlight the best games for Xbox One, PS4, and Wii U.