Over 750K Xbox 360s sold during Thanksgiving week in US, Microsoft says

Microsoft sold more than 750,000 Xbox 360 consoles in the U.S. last week, according to internal data announced by spokesman Major Nelson.

The company tallied the sales numbers from Sunday, Nov. 18 — the date of the North American Wii U launch — through Nov. 23, Black Friday; units sold over the weekend or on Cyber Monday were not included in today's announcement. In comparison, Nintendo sold more than 1.2 million units of hardware during the week, a total that consisted of 400,000 Wii U consoles, 300,000 Wiis, 275,000 Nintendo DS or DSi handhelds and 250,000 3DS units. Sony has not yet released PlayStation 3 or PlayStation Vita sales numbers for the week.

According to Microsoft, the sales exceeded the company's expectations for the six-day period. They didn't match last year's Black Friday week, during which Microsoft sold more than 960,000 Xbox 360s, but that's not surprising: The 2011 sales numbers made for what Major Nelson called "the biggest week in Xbox history."

Microsoft also reported increased usage of Xbox Live during the period. The company saw a year-over-year jump of more than 50 percent in sales of three-month subscriptions to Xbox Live Gold, and a 43 percent jump in the number of hours logged in the service's entertainment apps.