What's more exciting than a companydishing out impressive-sounding numbers? Like, nothing! And that's why we have Sony, which announced at GDC this week that over 41 million PS3s have been sold worldwide.
41.6 million, to be exact, said Sony Computer Entertainment America digital distribution manager Pierre Gravereau. Gravereau's presentation focused on the PlayStation Network, and why its an attractive platform for developers and other content providers.
Of particular note is that the vast majority of PS3 owners take their PS3s online - 80% are connected to the internet, according to Sony. That's a substantially higher rate than the Wii, which has the lowest connected rate of the three major consoles - although, of course, it's also sold the most, so its absolute number of connected users is a different story.
Last year, a study found that about 54% of Wii users took their consoles online, while the Xbox 360 ranked in at 73%. The PS3, at the time, had a 78% connected rate, according to the survey.
So even though there may be fewer PS3 consoles in homes around the globe, the majority of them are used to access online content, and many are accessed by more than one user. Despite only 41 million PS3s having been sold, there are more than 70 million PSN accounts.
PlayStation Store traffic, says Gravereau, has shot up by 60% over last year, leading to a 70% spike in digital revenue. He didn't provide exact numbers for these stats, but they sound impressive nonetheless.
[Source: Joystiq]
Mar 3, 2011
