Xbox 360 wins the Holiday Draw in North America

Nintendo Wii follows close behind

January 3, 2007

According to market research firm IDC, the Microsoft Xbox 360 has been declared the winner of the first major battle in the latest generation of Console Wars. The Xbox 360 sold approximately two million consoles over the holiday season in the U.S.

The Nintendo Wii followed closely behind with 1.8 million sales. The Sony PlayStation 3 trails behind with only 750,000 systems sold, mostly due to stock shortages. Although the Wii was difficult to find, the PS3 was nearly impossible.

The numbers include November and December sales of the consoles (and, consequently, all sales of the Wii and PS3 as both systems launched in mid-late November).

Although the Microsoft Xbox 360 won this battle, Nintendo was unable to fully meet demand for its Wii console. It's likely that Microsoft and Nintendo will be the fiercest competition until Sony corrects the bugs and issues with its PS3 and resolves its supply shortage.