Sony’s PlayStation 3 hits 70M sold, good enough for third place

Sony said today that sales of the PlayStation 3 have hit 70 million units worldwide. That’s an impressive number, but it means that Sony has come in third place in the three-horse console race.

The Tokyo electronics giant said today it also sold more than 15 million units of its PlayStation Move motion-sensing controller. That’s behind Microsoft’s Kinect sales (though the publisher does not disclose exact numbers on that platform), and it’s far behind Nintendo, whose Wii motion-sensing controller comes with every console.

Sony hit the 70 million number on Nov. 4, less than six years after the platform launched in 2006. That record is worse than the PlayStation 2, which has sold more than 150 million units worldwide. (Sony uses sell-in numbers, or those sold to retailers).

Microsoft’s number for the Xbox 360 is probably above Sony’s, though not by much. And Nintendo has sold an estimated 96 million Wii consoles since 2006.

The Sony PlayStation Network has 170,000 downloadable digital content pieces, including 57,000 games. The PSN network operates in 59 countries, and Sony revamped its PlayStation Store in October for easier shopping. Developers and publishes have created 3,590 titles for the PS 3 and sold 595 million units worldwide.