PS3 Breaks UK Sales Records!

29/03/07

Ever since delaying the launch of the PS3 over here for four months, Sony execs will be popping the champers and hitting the town tonight, after the PS3 smashed UK console sales records. According to Chart Track, UK shoppers snapped up 165,000 PS3s in just two days. That leaves about 55,000 still up for grabs from the UK’s 220,000 unit allotment. It also shows that the absence of High Streets cluttered with fanatics in sleeping bags is no measure of a console’s popularity.

PS3 sales were only bettered by sales of Sony’s own handheld system, the PSP, which racked up 185,000 unit sales back in 2005. The Xbox 360 managed 71,000 in its opening weekend and the Wii topped out at 105,000 – although to be fair, both were suffering launch shortages. Chart Track said that the PS3 launched with 22 games from 7 different publishers while the PSP had 24 games available from 11 different publishers when it was released in September 2005. A no-doubt relieved Phil Harrison, Sony’s World Wide Studios head said, in a podcast:

“In the UK 165,000 units were sold through to consumers in the first 48 hours, and that is over £100 million worth of business going through UK retail tills in PS3 hardware, software and peripherals. This not only makes it the most successful games hardware launch, we think it is the most successful consumer launch of a product in the UK.”
Via gizmodo