Sony Ships 100 Million PlayStation 2 Consoles

Officials from Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. have announced that cumulative worldwide shipments of the PlayStation 2 console have reached 100 million units as of November 29th this year, breaking the previous record in reaching this milestone, which was set by Sony's PSone. The milestone figure of shipments, as distinct from sales, was reached within five years and nine months of the console’s launch in Japan in March 2000. The PlayStation 2 was launched in the West beginning in October of that year. This is three months and nine months faster than its predecessor the PSone, which took nine years and six months to reach the same number of shipments. Cumulative console shipments by territory give a total of 40.65 million units in North America, 37.14 million units in Europe/other PAL territories and 22.22 million units in Japan and other Asian countries. A total of over 14,000 compatible titles have now been released for both systems, with 6,200 titles for the PlayStation 2 alone. Cumulative software shipments have reached a total of over 1.869 billion units as of September 2005. Recent figures for lifetime sales or shipments have not recently been updated by either Microsoft or Nintendo, but the Xbox is currently estimated to have sold between 22.5 and 23 million consoles and the GameCube just over 19 million. The Game Boy Advance is the only current generation console whose sales are in anyway close to the PlayStation 2, with approximately 70 million sold worldwide.