Complete Black Friday US console sales numbers revealed

The big three did pretty well for themselves this past Black Friday week (yes, apparently it’s a week long now). Complete retail sales numbers  after the break.

For some reason, the day after Thanksgiving day (or in some cases, the holiday itself) is just about the biggest retail shopping day in the US. Can’t imagine why, but folks love to start up that Christmas rush just as soon as the turkey is gone. Now Black Friday has expanded into a whole week and the big three are reporting sales to fit the period.

This year, for the first time since 2005, there’s a shiny new console on the market too. So how did sales go for the Wii U and last gen’s Xbox 360 and PS3? Not too bad is the short answer- the longer answer looks a little something like this:

In order of units sold, here are your winners for Black Friday (week), November 18th through the 23rd, 2012 as revealed by Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo:

1. Xbox 360 – The Xbox took home first place with a whopping 750,000 consoles sold during the week in question. That’s an impressive figure that’s made even more so when you consider that Xbox Live recorded a monster 72 million collective hours of game time on Sunday the 25th with some 14 million users logged in.
2. PlayStation 3 – Sony reports a solid 525,000 PS3’s moved during the week, which is up 9% over last year. There’s a slight caveat here though as they also throw in an extra day with the 24th included in their number figuring. So the actual number that would just include up to Black Friday itself is a little lower than this.
3. Wii U – Yes it was the ‘poorest’ showing during the big week, but consider this: The Wii U managed to move about 400,000 consoles even though it was just released and in the midst of a restocking at retail and online after the initial volley sold out. Just shy of half a million is not bad all when you take that into account.

That’s the home console tale of the tape, as far as handhelds go the digits were almost as impressive… at least they were for the 3DS.

1. Nintendo 3DS – The 3DS is turning into just as much the juggernaut as the first handheld to hold the name as the 3D portable raked in about 500,000 units sold in Black Friday week. That’s just beastly.
2. Sony PS Vita – The Vita… oh, the Vita. Moving just 160,000 units Sony’s current gen portable accounted for the very bottoms of console sales, handheld or otherwise. The little system still hasn’t really caught it’s footing and captured the minds (and wallets) of gamers since it’s launch last Spring. Even Call of Duty couldn’t help it any, as bad a rendition of Activision’s mega-franchise as it was.

So that’s round one. Round two is still ongoing as the three major consoles battle for supremacy in what’s more than likely the last Holiday season for either the current Xbox or PlayStation- and the first for the Wii U.

It promises to be interesting.