--- description: Let the good times roll: In May 2014, video game sales roared to life after months of declines. title: PlayStation 4 Wins May, Video Games Sales Surge Across the Board image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta2d6346eb62c96ef/69868241e53aba4ca14d11c3/playstation-4.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Sony Says PS4 "Wins" May, Game Sales Surge Across the Board by [Matt Peckham](/author/matt-peckham/) ## Matt Peckham Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 17, 2014 2:15 PM CUT  Sony by [Matt Peckham](/author/matt-peckham/) ## Matt Peckham Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 17, 2014 2:15 PM CUT Monthly video game sales for May 2014 arrived late last night courtesy NPD Group, with the sales tracker noting — along with Sony, which deployed a beaming media email — that the PS4 was the best-selling games console for the fifth month in a row. Sony added that the Ps4 was numero uno for both hardware as well as “next gen” software sales, claiming four of the latter category’s top five slots. Numero two was _not_ the Xbox One, but rather Nintendo’s 3DS (according to Nintendo). Unsurprisingly, Wii U sales were up year-on-year, off sales of _Mario Kart 8_ ([reviewed here](http://time.com/97022/mario-kart-8-review/ "undefined")), which took the number two software spot all by itself, following _Watch Dogs_ ([reviewed here](http://time.com/119274/watch-dogs-review/ "undefined")) tallied across five discrete platforms. Those two games probably had the most to do with May’s software surge, followed by _Wolfenstein: The New Order_ ([reviewed here](http://time.com/103517/wolfenstein-the-new-order-review/ "undefined")), _The Amazing Spider-Man 2_ and _Kirby: Triple Deluxe_. In a separate dispatch, Nintendo described Wii U sales as up 85% month-on-month and 90% year-on-year. The company had previously tagged _Mario Kart 8_ sales at 1.2 million worldwide during the racer’s first weekend (it launched on May 30). NPD says hardware sales were $187 million, up 95% year-on-year, followed by software sales of $274 million (up 57%) and overall retail sales of $586 million (up 52%). The latter’s significant because NPD says the last time we saw this kind of growth was back in June 2008. Continuing in its attempt to juggle the widening divide between physical and digital content sales, NPD notes those figures cover “roughly 50 percent of the total consumer spend on games,” and it estimates the total consumer spend in May, taking into consideration used and rentals ($124 million) as well as digital content and social network games ($787 million), the _actual_ outlay for May was $1.46 billion. While the PS4 and Xbox One have yet to experience year-on-year comparisons (they just arrived last November), NPD says both the Wii U and PS Vita did better this May than the prior year, though specific figures weren’t offered. Apparently Sony’s _Borderlands 2_ bundle gave the Vita a boost, while Nintendo’s _Mario Kart 8_ bundle helped bring fresh Wii U owners to Nintendo’s fold. At last check, around the end of March and in worldwide terms, Sony [said it had sold some 7 million PS4s](http://time.com/65927/sony-says-7-million-playstation-4s-have-been-sold-worldwide/ "undefined"), Microsoft that [it had shipped around 5 million Xbox Ones](http://time.com/67954/5-reasons-the-latest-playstation-4-and-xbox-one-sales-figures-dont-mean-what-you-think-they-do/ "undefined") and Nintendo that it had sold just over 6 million Wii Us. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2889466/ps4-wins-may-xbox-sales/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2889466/ps4-wins-may-xbox-sales/"},"headline":"Sony Says PS4 \"Wins\" May, Game Sales Surge Across the Board","datePublished":"2014-06-17T14:15:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:02:32.989Z","description":"Let the good times roll: In May 2014, video game sales roared to life after months of declines.","url":"https://time.com/2889466/ps4-wins-may-xbox-sales/","keywords":["Tech","Video Games","sales","Sony","PlayStation 4","xbox One","Nintendo","Microsoft","PS Vita","Wii U","3ds"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta2d6346eb62c96ef/69868241e53aba4ca14d11c3/playstation-4.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Matt Peckham","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/matt-peckham/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta2d6346eb62c96ef/69868241e53aba4ca14d11c3/playstation-4.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"playstation-4","caption":"","creditText":"Sony","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2889466/ps4-wins-may-xbox-sales/","name":"Sony Says PS4 \"Wins\" May, Game Sales Surge Across the Board"}}]}] ```