Gaming

Sony PS4 sales top 30 million in battle with Xbox

Sony PS4 exceed 30M units
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Sony PS4 exceed 30M units

Sony has sold 30.2 million units of its PlayStation 4 (PS4) games console worldwide over the last two years, the Japanese electronics giant said on Wednesday, suggesting it is dominating in the console wars.

The PlayStation 4 figures date from November 2013 – when the device launched – to November 22, 2015. The 30.2 million number marks a big increase from the 20.2 million units Sony said it had sold as of March 1.

On Wednesday, Sony said the "PS4 continues to demonstrate the fastest and strongest growth in PlayStation hardware history".

The Japanese company is aiming to sell more than 17.5 million units of the console by the end of the fiscal year, in March 2016.

There have been no overall sales figures for the Xbox One, the PS4's closest competitor, since last November, when Microsoft said it had sold 10 million units. Since then, official figures from Microsoft have been vague.

In its 2015 earnings for the three months to June 30, Microsoft said it had sold 1.4 million Xbox consoles in that quarter. But it did not specify how many were Xbox Ones, or earlier versions of the consoles.

And in the latest earnings release, Microsoft stopped releasing any Xbox unit numbers at all.

Meanwhile, Nintendo's Wii U, which was released in November 2012, a year before the Xbox One and PS4, had sold 10.73 million units as of September 30.

Sony's figures came after it cut the price of the console in Japan, the U.S. and Europe ahead of the holiday season, to help maintain purchasing momentum.