PlayStation 4 Sales Reach One Million on Launch Day

One million PlayStation 4s were sold on the North American launch day of the console making it the strongest start in Sony's history. 

Yahoo! Japan first reported the impressive number for the console noting that it had performed better than the PS2 at launch – the best selling console of all time. 

Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida then confirmed the news on his Twitter account. 

PS4 has sold through over 1 million units within 24 hours of the launch in North America!!! 😀

— Shuhei Yoshida (@yosp) November 17, 2013

It should be noted that "sold through" refers to sales to consumers rather than retailers. 

The PlayStation 2 reached sales of one million in North America after three days while the PlayStation 3 took almost two months to hit that figure in the region. 

Having a large install base will most certainly appeal to developers and publishers looking to support the platform. 

Sony will be releasing the PlayStation 4 in Europe on November 29th and Japan on February 22nd. The Xbox One is releasing in 13 countries on Friday, November 22nd and it'll be interesting to see how sales compare. 

During the Tokyo Game Show in September Sony Computer Entertainment president Andrew House announced that the company expects to sell five million PlayStation 4s by the end of the current fiscal year – March 31st, 2014. Given performance so far, it seems Sony is well on its way to meeting that target.