PlayStation 3 hits 70 million units shipped worldwide mark six years after launch

Sony has shipped 70 million PlayStation 3s to shops worldwide since it launched.

This morning Sony announced that cumulative sales of the PS3 reached 70 million worldwide as of 4th November 2012 - six years after it launched in November 2006.

That's a sell-in number for the PS3, and so relates to the units shipped to shops, not sold through to customers, but it's an impressive tally nonetheless.

How does the PS3 stack up against its competitor the Xbox 360, which launched a year earlier in November 2005?

As of September 2012 Microsoft had sold 70 million Xbox 360s.

Of course, both Sony and Microsoft's consoles lag behind the Nintendo Wii, which has sold an incredible 97.18 million units (thanks, karooo!).

Meanwhile, Sony said it has shipped 15 million PlayStation Move controllers units worldwide as of 11th November 2012.

Now, onto the games. As of 30th September, there were 3590 PS3 games and more than 595 million games have been sold worldwide.