Playstation 4 Continues To Outpace PS2, Challenging Wii For Fastest-Selling Console

In a conversation with IGN, Sony Computer Entertainment America's President and CEO Shawn Layden confirmed that PS4 has continued to sell at a high rate, outpacing PlayStation 2's astounding sales a year out from their respective releases.

PS4's success "certainly surprised some analysts who will go unnamed in this conversation, who have been announcing the death of console for quite some time," he said. "The next-gen platforms right now -- I don't have the numbers -- this generation has grown faster, further, wider, broader than any other game generation in the past. PlayStation 4 is leading that entire charge in next-gen."

Noting that PS4 has reached 13 and a half million units shipped before its first birthday, with continued strong sales and demand, Layden said that, "people think PS2 was the biggest thing to ever happen to gaming of all-time; we are pacing above the PS2 run rate." PlayStation 2, which launched in the fall of 2000, sold over 150 million units during its lengthy lifespan.

"We have tablets, we have mobile, there's many other devices people are playing games across," he continued, "but in the end, the ultimate gaming experience is on your sofa in front of your big screen, having the most immersive experience possible. And I think that's what next-generation is bringing to everybody."

While PS4's sales are outpacing PS2, Nintendo's Wii -- launched in the fall of 2006 -- is another story worth noting. Severely supply constrained during its first year on the market, Wii's sales ticked-up significantly by the end of 2007. Nintendo had a strong holiday season in 2007, and by April of 2008, nearly 25 million Wii consoles were in the wild, a number Sony is very unlikely to match.

That means that, when the dust settles, PS4 will likely find itself in second place when judging the fastest-selling console a year (or so) from release, and will likely lag far behind Wii -- which was a cultural phenomenon during its early years -- by the spring. Still, besting PlayStation 2's year one sales -- considering it's the best-selling home console of all-time by a mile -- is quite the feat.

As for PlayStation 4, its meteoric success is well-documented, and now we have some perspective about where it sits a year out from release when compared to the industry's two other massive year one successes: PlayStation 2 and Wii. After selling a million units in a single day, PS4's sales haven't slowed enough to knock it back into historic norms. It has outsold the Xbox One for 10 months in a row in the US, and Sony recently revealed, as mentioned earlier, that it's shipped 13 and a half million units worldwide.