PS3 reaches 1.1 million units Down Under

Earlier today, the Interactive Games & Entertainment Association (iGEA) announced that the Australian video games industry made total revenues of approximately A$1.7 billion in 2010. While the number may seem high, it represents a 16 percent decline on the previous year's sales.

Following the iGEA's announcement, Sony and Microsoft both used the opportunity to reveal their respective positions during 2010. Since its launch in 2007, the PlayStation 3 has sold more than 1.1 million consoles in Australia, according to industry trackers GfK Australia. According to Sony, the PS3 dominated local hardware sales, making up 26.5 percent of the total value share for all console sales in the region last year--the highest percentage share of any manufacturer.

Sony's other consoles, the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable, now have a total lifetime install base of 2.6 million and 675,000 units in Australia, respectively.

PlayStation 3 games accounted for 26.7 percent of the software market in Australia, with the PS3 boasting a game-to-console attachment rate of just over 10 games per console.

By comparison, Sony's Redmond-based competitor, Microsoft, declined to offer any Australian-specific hardware details in its release, revealing only that the Xbox 360 experienced its biggest year to date in 2010 and saw a 20 percent increase in total sales over 2009. Microsoft Australia declined to confirm total Xbox 360 sales to GameSpot AU, stating that it "does not release regionalized data."

The last time Microsoft released Australian sales data was in August 2009, when it confirmed 700,000 Xbox 360 units sold across Australia and New Zealand.

Nintendo has not yet released sales data for the 2010 period.

[UPDATE] According to data trackers GfK Australia, out of the 1.1 million PS3 consoles in Australia, 921,969 were sold at retail and the remainder were given away through various promotions, like the deal that saw Bravia TV buyers receive a free PS3.