PS4 thumps Xbox One with 250,000 sales in UK, fastest ever

The PlayStation 4 is Britain's fastest-selling console ever, storming to over 250,000 sales in its first weekend, according to Gfk Chart-Track and sources quoted by industry website MCV.

Sony's new machine walloped the Xbox One, with Microsoft's new box selling a thoroughly respectable 150,000 units in its initial 48 hours on sale, the unofficial figures say.

Both consoles are now out of stock, and retailer Amazon has warned not to expect any more before Christmas. Resellers on sites such as Play.com, however, are charging over £200 over the odds for stockpiled games machines.

The PS4 broke the venerable PSP's eight-year record of selling 180,000 consoles in its first two days.

With few must-have exclusives for either console, and games running at £50 a pop on both, focus has rested largely on the machines themselves. Sony's largely trouble-free launch period and reasonable £349 price tag have contrasted with a number of U-turns from Microsoft and a compulsory Kinect bumping the Xbox One up to £429.

But with pre-release hype so heavily in Sony's favour, Microsoft may well be relieved to have been outsold by a ratio of only five units to three. Sony had no comment on the unofficial figures, and Microsoft have yet to respond.

Are you enjoying your new console? Or nervously waiting to see if it's under the tree on Christmas day? Do you think the Xbox will recover from falling behind early on? Give me your thoughts down in the comments, or on our best-selling Facebook page.