The PlayStation 4 took home the record for sales of a launch console this weekend in the UK, topping 250,000 units sold in 48 hours, which tallies up to around $1.4 billion U.S. in sales, according to The Telegraph. That's far better than the PlayStation 3 managed back when it launched, and a good 100K units better than the 150,000 units reportedly sold by Microsoft during its Xbox One launch in the UK a week ago.
Neither Microsoft nor Sony are talking official numbers for the launches of their devices in the UK, despite crowing about million-plus device sales for their respective North American launches. Microsoft launched in more markets with its first release, however, as Matthew Panzarino points out, that included the UK in its pool.
It's hard to make a strong case for a dramatic lead by either console at this stage in the game, with imperfect information coming in, but the PS4 does seem to maintain a slightly lead based on what we know. The last time a game console sold anywhere near as many units on launch day was the PSP, which shipped 185,000 units back in 2005. The Nintendo Wii U isn't even in the running, which doesn't bode well for Nintendo's next decade.
Another interesting stat to coincide with these record console numbers: Steam has just announced that it passed a 7 million simultaneous user login milestone, meaning that many people were using its games platform all at once. That's an incredible number given the usual pace of console sales, let alone active players, so Valve and its Steambox/SteamOS plans are still the key player to watch in this race as far as I'm concerned.
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