But there are no declines so far, for either PS4 or Xbox One. The 2018 NPD numbers are the best January-August period that both platforms have ever had. Let me state that again: through August, 2018 is the best year for PS4 sales, and it's the best year for Xbox One sales. Yes, they'd probably both be down if the mid-gen upgrades hadn't been released, but that was the whole point of releasing the mid-gen upgrades. (This is actually one of the most important lessons of sales-era, that subjunctive claims are reversible.)
For PS4 specifically, 2018 isn't just good in comparison to itself. January to August sales are actually the 11th best for any home console. (Exceeded 4 times by PS2, 2 times by 360, and 4 times by Wii.) Of course that's just through August, and Benji is talking about October already. But note that he didn't say that's down massively, just that he finds sales underwhelming so far (before Rockstar's tentpole releases). So let's say PS4 only sells 525k in September and October combined, despite Spider-man and BLOPS IIII and RDR 2. Averaging under 265k/month sounds really disappointing, right? But that still wouldn't be decline for the platform--2018 would remain its best NPD year ever.
Xbox One is also in good shape. It needs ~625k September/October for 2018 to remain its highest year. They achieved that before, in 2015 and 2016. And in 2018 they've spent most of the time up versus the comparative months from those years. The only caveat is that they were down versus 2015/2016 in July and August, perhaps suggesting a diminution of the One X effect.
