Last month, during the console's first birthday celebrations Pocket-lint revealed that the Xbox One was soon to be announced as outselling the PS4 in the UK for the first time. That has now been confirmed but there is more; it was also the best-selling console in the US in November.

The shift is significant in a console battle that seemed like Sony had won, full stop.

In addition, both new generation consoles are dramatically outselling the last. US sales tracking company NPD reports that Xbox One and PS4 sales are "almost 80 per cent higher than the combined total of PS3 and Xbox 360 sales".

The Wii U also benefited from an upturn in console sales in November, with Nintendo claiming that "the week of 23 November was the biggest single week of Wii U hardware sales since the system launched in November 2012". Super Smash Bros for Wii U is part of that success, selling 710,000 copies in just the few weeks since launch.

READ: Xbox One vs PS4: Which is best for you?

Games are also cited as the main reason for Xbox One's new position at the top of the sales chart. Microsoft's corporate vice president of Xbox marketing, Mike Nichols, said that it was its release line-up for the holidays that has swayed consumers this year.

"Response to the holiday line-up of games on Xbox One was incredible, with Xbox One fans buying more games in November in the US than any other gen eight platform and enjoying over 357 million hours of gameplay globally."