Sony has reached a milestone. The company announced that sales for the PlayStation 3 have reached 50 million units worldwide in the five years since its debut.
Sales of the console have steadily increased; the Telegraph UK notes that 3.5 million PS3s were shipped in 2006, 9.1 million in 2007, 10.1 million in 2008, and 13 million in 2009.
It must be noted that Sony calls these "sell-in numbers," which refers to the number of units Sony sold to retailers, not directly to users. So these numbers are not totally comparable to retail figures reported by Sony's competition. Regardless, Sony's sales numbers are impressive.
Sony says it's sold more than eight million Move controllers as of April 3. Sales for the system have been strong. Launched in September of last year, Sony reported that it sold more than a million units in its first 30 days on the market. However, Sony's numbers look modest compared sales of Microsoft's Xbox 360 Kinect. Microsoft launched Kinect at the beginning of November and sold eight million of the hands-free system in the first two months. It took Sony, on the other hand, seven months to hit that number.
Sony said in a press release that it's seen the PlayStation Network grow along with the console itself. PSN now has more than 75 million registered accounts operating in 59 countries around the globe.
Sony might be happy to report some positive PlayStation news. The company reached a settlement last week with PS3 hacker George "Geohot" Hotz that includes Hotz agreeing to a permanent injunction against posting information that Sony has wanted removed. Hotz, however, claims that he will never buy a Sony product again.