PS4 hits 6 million consoles sold, 13.7 million games; Xbox One still only around 4 million

Bolstered by opening week sales inJapan, Sony has announced that the PlayStation 4 has sold six million units worldwide. Perhaps more importantly, Sony also says that 13.7 million PS4 games have been sold — an attach rate of almost 2.3 games per console — with Killzone: Shadow Fall leading the pack with 2.1 million units sold. The exact number of Xbox Ones sold is unknown, but it’s probably just under four million.

In an official blog post this morning, Sony took the opportunity to offload a bunch of impressive statistics. Six million units sold worldwide. 13.7 million games sold. 90% of PS4s are online — producing 3.6 million live broadcasts, 56 million spectate sessions, and 100 million social shares (via the DualShock 4′s Share button). Apparently 20% of all daily broadcasters on Twitch since January 1 have been PS4 gamers.                                              

                      

Sony also announced today that the PS4 had sold 370,000 units in Japan, in its first week of sales. This is obviously small fry compared tothe one million PS4s sold in the first 24 hours in the US — but do remember that Japan only has around a third of the population of the US. A better comparison is the UK, which has around half the population of Japan, where around 250,000 PS4s were sold in the opening weekend. This still makes Japan’s opening week look weak — though it’s worth pointing out that the PS3 didn’t sell very well in Japan early on, either. The Wii sold around the same number of units in its first week in Japan, and it went on to be a huge success. (The PS2 was the first and last console to truly explode the Japanese market.)

With 2.1 million units sold, Killzone: Shadow Fall is obviously doing its job as a platform exclusive. It will be interesting to see if the Xbox One’s first big exclusive,. Titanfall, which is released next week, can drive a significant increase in console sales. Though, a week later, the PS4 will get its next big exclusive: Infamous: Second Son. The release dates for other big PS4 and Xbox One exclusives haven’t yet been announced, but they are expected to play a fairly big role in deciding who ultimately sells more consoles. Microsoft might also close the widening sales gap if it released the Xbox One in some more markets — and, of course, if its price was cut to directly compete with the PS4.