PS3 sales hit 1M in Japan

Back in January, Sony announced it had achieved its goal of shipping 2 million PlayStation 3s worldwide. The company achieved the goal several weeks late, when it shipped its 1 millionth unit to the Japanese market. However, many were skeptical of Sony's claims of success, since the figures were only for units shipped to retailers, not sold to consumers.

Nearly six months to the day later, Sony has finally sold its 1 millionth PS3 in Japan. Reuters quotes Famitsu publisher and Japanese game-industry stat tracker Enterbrain as reporting that Sony's console reached the sales milestone on July 15.

Japan is the last major gaming region to reach the 1 million sold milestone. North America was the first, with nearly 700,000 PS3s being sold during the 2006 holiday season alone, and early last month, the PS3 hit the 1 million mark in the PAL territories of Europe and Australia. The PS3 launched in North America and Japan in November 2006, and went on sale across PAL territories in March 2007.

The Japanese gaming hardware market has been all but cornered by Nintendo since the Wii launched in December 2006. According to Enterbrain's numbers, the Wii has sold 2.9 million units in Japan as of mid-July, more than double the combined total of the PS3's 1 million and the Xbox 360's 420,000 units. In May, the Wii was outselling the PS3 by a healthy margin of 5-to-1.