PAL PS2 closes in on 20 million units
With 60 million worldwide.
Sony's PlayStation 2 passed another milestone on Saturday as the worldwide cumulative shipping figure struck a massive chime at 60.03 million units. In terms of breakdown, that's 14.17 million in Japan (where it launched on March 4th, 2000) including Asia, 26.42 million in the US (October 26th, 2000) and just under 20 million - 19.44 million units - in Europe (November 24th, 2000).
From the machine's Japanese launch to the present day, that's three and a half years - making the 60 million figure 1.6 times more volume than the original PlayStation managed in the same period. As a result, Sony has upped its monthly production/shipment to more than three million units from this August in order to capitalise on the Christmas period.
It's been quite a haul for Sony, who shipped their 50 millionth PS2 on January 15th 2003, having hit 40 million just four months previously and 30 million four and a half months prior to that. Sales can be expected to accelerate over the Christmas period of course, but it'll be interesting to see what sort of legs the console has left...