The Xbox 360 has long coasted in the second-place slot for hardware sales, just being Nintendo’s massively successful Wii. But the Xbox 360 has been steadily closing the gap, thanks in large part to a lineup of strong games, the success of Kinect and an ever-shrinking price tag.

2011 seems to have been the year of Xbox, with Microsoft moving 14.9 million 360s. Surprisingly, the PS3 beat out the Wii as well, moving 14.1 million units. The Wii, still going strong but on the downslide, sold 10.33 million.

These figures seem to hold up during the holiday rush as well – Microsoft moved 8.2 million Xboxes to Sony’s 6.5 million PS3s and Nintendo’s 5.6 million Wiis. It’s worth noting that the Wii is still way ahead of the other two consoles in terms of lifetime sales, with 95 million units sold. For comparison, the PS3 has sold 62 million, and the 360 has sold 66 million.

These numbers come at a time when everyone is focused on the next console generation. The Wii U is set for launch this year, with the new Xbox and PlayStation soon to follow. 2011’s numbers indicate that the contest is really anyone’s to take.

[Game Informer]

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