Okay, so it’s a jackpot Sony kind of knew it was going to hit before the system launched, when it was telling everyone it’d pre-sold over a million PlayStation 4 units, so this just makes it official: Sony says the PS4 sold one million units during its first 24 hours on sale, starting from midnight Friday, November 15.
I’m not sure if that’s a record, because I’m not really up on game console launch records. When I spoke with Sony’s Jack Tretton on Wednesday morning, he was sure the system wouldn’t so much break as shatter launch sales figures, and if this wikia’s NPD launch figures are accurate — that the next biggest record-setters were the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS, each at half a million units sold during their respective launch weeks — he’d be correct, though why Sony isn’t saying as much in its press release is anyone’s guess.
The PS4 has so far only launched in North America, which has a smaller video game population than Europe, so the fireworks may just be starting. The PS4 rolls out in Europe (including the U.K.), Australia and Brazil on November 29, followed by at least 10 more countries by year’s end. Interestingly, Sony won’t launch the PS4 in Japan until February 2014, a stark reversal from prior launches: the PS3 launched in Japan and the U.S. at nearly the same time, while the original PlayStation launched in Japan nine months before seeing light of day stateside.
I reviewed the PS4 here, most of the console’s online services here, put together a brief buyer’s pros and cons list here and we have a launch-games lineup with overviews here.
Microsoft’s Xbox One is out next Friday, November 22, of course, so stay tuned for similar features as well as our review, which goes live Tuesday night, November 19, at midnight ET.
Watch here for PlayStation’s New York City midnight launch: