Big numbers abound for the PlayStation 3, according to newly-released official figures. That’s official as in direct from Sony thus 100% true, and not, y'know, cooked in any way. Gosh no...

Games first, and Sony reckons to have shifted 189.7 million pieces of software worldwide in the period between PS3 launch and June 30th this year. This monolithic stat is all the more impressive seeing as Sony records actual rather than wholesale transactions – in other words this is games bought by real people rather than the bulk retail orders. First and third-party game sales have been counted, as well as paid-for PlayStation Network downloads. Fair enough, right?

Next up the Big One – console sales. Here we find the PlayStation 3 still stuck in third place in the three-horse hardware stakes. No huge surprise there, we guess. However it’s not quite as far behind as you might imagine and, crucially, is catching up fast. As things stand the PlayStation 3 has recorded 23.8 million sales since launch. This compares very favourably to the 31 million or so achieved by the 360 thus far. And let’s not forget the year’s head-start the big Box had over its next-gen rival.

There’s still some clear water between PS3 and the Wii, though. Current estimates peg the latter at a touch under 52 million units shipped. Actual sales won’t be too far behind either, especially given the Wii’s alarming tendency to fly off the shelves as soon as it’s stocked. But enough about Nintendo’s over-reported achievements, eh!