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Sony PS4 sales top 50 million

First released in late 2013, the PlayStation 4 line breaks 50 million in worldwide sales as of December 6.

Dan Ackerman Editorial Director / Computers and Gaming
Dan Ackerman leads CNET's coverage of computers and gaming hardware. A New York native and former radio DJ, he's also a regular TV talking head and the author of "The Tetris Effect" (Hachette/PublicAffairs), a non-fiction gaming and business history book that has earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Fortune, LA Review of Books, and many other publications. "Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... the story shines." -- The New York Times
Expertise I've been testing and reviewing computer and gaming hardware for over 20 years, covering every console launch since the Dreamcast and every MacBook...ever. Credentials
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Sony , maker of the PlayStation family of game consoles , says the PlayStation 4 has "sold through more than 50 million units to consumers worldwide as of December 6."

That's just a few weeks past the system's third birthday. It was originally released in the US on November 15, 2013. The worldwide sales number includes the original PS4 model, the recently released slim version and the new PlayStation 4 Pro .

sonyps4slim07.jpg

The new, slimmer version of the PS4.

 Aloysius Low/CNET

"We're truly delighted that the PS4 community continues to flourish since launch three years ago," Andrew House, president and global CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, said in a press release. "We will continue to provide the best gaming experiences available ... as we focus on accelerating our business and expanding the PS4 ecosystem."

The company also said it just had "best ever Black Friday week in the history of PlayStation." Some recent consumer interest may be driven by the new PlayStation VR headset, which is the only virtual reality system available for living room game consoles.

We've asked Microsoft for comparable lifetime hardware sales for the Xbox One , first released November 22, 2013, and will update this story if we get that figure.