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US PS3 sales surge

US PlayStation 3 sales almost doubled last month on the back of the latest in the Metal Gear Solid game series - but the Wii remained June's games console champion.

According to figures from market watcher NPD, Sony shifted 405,500 PS3s through US retail channels in June, up 94.3 per cent on the May's total of 208,700.

The Xbox 360's sales were up 17.8 per cent month on month, from 186,600 units to 219,800. PS3 sales have kept ahead of the Microsoft console this year, though for two months - March and April - they were neck and neck.

US Console Sales 2008

US console sales 2008 - NPD

Source: NPD

Compare that to the Wii's trajectory. In January, Nintendo shifted 274,000 consoles, just beating Sony's 269,00 PS3 and Microsoft's 230,000 360s. But the following month, Nintendo shot ahead to 432,000 then, in March reached 721,000. It's dropped back to the upper 600,000s since then, but that still leaves it outselling the 360 more than 3:1.

But for June's sudden increase, the Wii would have outsold the PS3 by the same margin.

PS2 sale remain strong, coming in not far from the 360 and PS3 curves, sometimes above, sometimes below, on average much the same. The average number of PS2s Sony has shipped each month this year is 223,500.

Microsoft's figure is 229,000. Ignoring the PS3's sudden jump, the next-gen console's average is 240,520 - take June's total into account and the average monthly sales figure rises to 268,020.

The Wii's average is 580,500 - more than double the PS3's figure. ®

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