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PS4, trailing Xbox One for months, wins November sales race in US

Sony's PlayStation 4 finally breaks its monthly sales losing streak to Microsoft's Xbox One, a Sony spokesperson has confirmed.

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David Carnoy Executive Editor / Reviews
Executive Editor David Carnoy has been a leading member of CNET's Reviews team since 2000. He covers the gamut of gadgets and is a notable reviewer of mobile accessories and portable audio products, including headphones and speakers. He's also an e-reader and e-publishing expert as well as the author of the novels Knife Music, The Big Exit and Lucidity. All the titles are available as Kindle, iBooks, Nook e-books and audiobooks.
Expertise Mobile accessories and portable audio, including headphones, earbuds and speakers Credentials
  • Maggie Award for Best Regularly Featured Web Column/Consumer
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A couple days ago, Sony announced that sales for its PlayStation 4 had topped 50 million units since the game console launched a little more than three years ago.

What it didn't talk about was that since the arrival of the Xbox One S in June, Xbox One sales had been outpacing PS4 sales, according to NPD Group data -- but the PS4 had managed to reverse that trend in November.

While NPD's monthly sales report won't go public till December 15, CNET's sister site, GameSpot, confirmed with a Sony spokesperson that the PS4 was the top selling console in the US in November. However, the spokesperson didn't site specific numbers.

Thanks to the release of the Xbox One S coupled with aggressive pricing , the Xbox has been on top of the console sales charts since July. Meanwhile, Sony released the PS4 Slim in September, the PlayStation VR in October and the more powerful PS4 Pro in November.

Both companies are running sales on their consoles through the holiday season, and shoppers can expect to see continued $50 discounts on various models and bundles along with extra games or game controllers thrown in as deal sweeteners during limited-time specials.