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Sales of Sony's wildly successful PS4 has topped 7 million, the Japanese electronic giant announced last week. Microsoft's competing Xbox One console, on the other hand, lags behind with only 5 million units "shipped to retailers", according to the Seattle based company.

Despite the relatively small number of "must-have" games on the PS4, hardware sales continue to be strong in the early stages of this new console generation.

Xbox One sales continue to lag behind due to the $100 price premium Microsoft's console holds over Sony's, most of that due to the added cost of including the Kinect motion gaming device with all Xbox One consoles. Kinect has not proven to be the must-have accessory that Microsoft had hoped, with gamers remaining unenthusiastic towards its potential for gaming.

Microsoft's stated figure of 5 million units is also only a "shipped" figure, not sold, meaning some of these "shipped" units still remain on store shelves, unsold to consumers.

U.S. video game sales in March was to be the Xbox One's best chance to beat the PS4 in sales for the first time since December, due to the release of the eagerly anticipated Xbox One and PC exclusive Titanfall. The well review game, not available on the PS4, counts as perhaps the first "must-have" game for the Xbox One and was expected to help Xbox One console sales pip the PS4's at least in March.

However, the reality proved to be much different, with PS4 sales holding the top spot for the third month in a row, ahead of the 311,000 Xbox One consoles sold in March (up from 258,000 in February). While Titanfall was indeed the top selling game in March, Sony's PS4 exclusive inFAMOUS: Second Son was in second place.