The Playstation Network has just celebrated its second birthday in the States and - lest there be any doubt that it’s still not as good as Xbox LIVE - Sony is trumpeting some very big numbers.

That’s 14 million active PSN accounts worldwide which, funnily enough, is pretty much exactly the same number of users that Microsoft says it’ll be reaching with the New Xbox Experience which arrives tomorrow. Is the timing of Sony’s announcement intended to take the shine off the Xbox 360’s big launch? Put it this way, we’re sure it’s more than a coincidence.

Elsewhere in the same statement posted on the official US Playstation Blog the big stats keep on a-rolling - nearly 17 million PS3 owners globally and a staggering 273 million pieces of content downloaded from PSN to date. It’s all very impressive, even if it’s (deliberately) not clear how big a part the PSP plays in the success story. Or are we really to suppose that every PSN account holder has downloaded 19.5 pieces of content and that the PSN has an attach rate exceeding 80 percent? Hmmm…