Xbox 360 poised to outsell Wii by the end of March, says analyst

By Stephany Nunneley

Analyst Doug Creutz believes Xbox 360 is poised to outsell Wii in the US, based on unit sales during the past 11 months.

Per Creutz’s industry note released after last night’s NPDs, the Cowan and Company analyst is of the opinion that for the first time in this console cycle, Microsoft will outsell the Wii during the period of March 2010 to March 2011.

“This illustrates the significant shift that has gone on over the last year in the console space,” said Creutz. “The Wii was outselling the 360 and PlayStation 3 combined on a trailing twelve months (TTM) basis as recently as January 2010, and was outselling the 360 alone by 2:1 on a TTM basis in December 2009 and 1.5:1 in October 2010.

“Over the last three years, TTM total US Xbox 360/PlayStation 3/Wii hardware unit sales have remained relatively consistent in the 17-19 million unit range (18.2 million as of February), so this does represent a share shift as opposed to just a decline for the Wii.

“We believe the significant shift in hardware sales towards HD consoles is a positive ongoing development for the US publishers, who earn the majority of their sales on the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3.”

After the NPDs were released last night, Microsoft responded stating that February 2011 was the largest “non-holiday month,” for the firm to date and saw the console move 535,000 units.

Thanks, GI.biz.