Microsoft has announced that its Xbox consoles have apparently led the market in next-gen console sales for two quarters running, seeing it hit back in the war for dominance against Sony's PlayStation 5.

The news came during the company's third-quarter earnings call, and involved Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella confirming that the Xbox Series X and S have been ahead of the PS5 over six months, it would seem.

This wasn't backed up with firm figures, unsurprisingly, and does come with some caveats - in particular, the lower price of the Series S and both Xbox consoles' relative availability compared to the still extremely-scarce PS5.

However, they still represent a great return for Xbox, and mean that it can bask in the glow of records like its best ever March for sales in the US, which is true both in terms of console sale volumes and actual cash return.

These sorts of records looked distant when Microsoft and Sony's newest consoles arrived thanks to the difficulty consumers had in actually finding them, but things appear to be smoothing out for Xbox at least, around a year and a half on from launch.