Microsoft reported it has shipped more than 5 million Xbox One consoles to retailers since is November launch, still far behind its competitor PlayStation 4, but more than enough to keep company executives smiling.

The milestone was announced by Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft's chief marketing and strategy officer, on his blog where he added that 311,000 Xbox Ones were sold in the United States just in March, an act he credited to the launch of Titanfall. Despite these sales, Sony's PlayStation 4 outsold Xbox One, with 7 million units going out the door since its launch.

"PS4 and Xbox One continue to see success with cumulative sales of the two consoles through the first five months currently totaling more than double that of their predecessors, the PS3 and Xbox 360," said NPD's Liam Callahan.

Market research firm NPD ranked Titanfall as the top selling game in March with a very high attach rate to the Xbox One. Additionally, after just one month it is the second-highest selling Xbox One game on the market, Callahan said.

"The team and I had the honor of joining thousands of you in Austin, Texas, at SXSW this past March as you waited in line for the Titanfall launch on Xbox One. We were blown away by your passion and enthusiasm on launch night and since then, it's been exciting to see gamers around the world playing "Titanfall" on Xbox Live. Today, we congratulate our friends at Respawn Entertainment, and Electronic Arts, as "Titanfall" for Xbox One was named the number one selling game in March, Mehdi said.

Mehdi sited additional NPD statistics that showed the Xbox One is now selling at a faster pace, 60 percent more, than Xbox 360 did during the same point in its life cycle. However, this does not mean the Xbox 360 is now history -- 111,000 units sold in the United States in March.

Overall game sales for the Xbox One are averaging 2.9 per console, with 2.7 million being sold in March. During the same period, Xbox one game sales his 1.4 million. NPD said this gives the Xbox family 49 percent of the total software market share.

Microsoft said Xbox One players are spending an average of five hours per day on the console and have collectively racked up more than 1 billion hours of time on the console and its various apps.