From official Sony PR:

TOKYO, Nov. 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) today announced that the highly anticipated launch of the PlayStation®4 (PS4™) computer entertainment system resulted in 1 million units sold through during the first 24 hours after it became available on November 15, 2013 in the United States and Canada.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20020701/SFM066LOGO)

"PS4™ was designed with an unwavering commitment to gamers, and we are thrilled that consumer reaction has been so phenomenal," said Andrew House, President and Group CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. "Sales remain very strong inNorth America, and we expect continued enthusiasm as we launch the PlayStation 4 in Europe and Latin America onNovember 29. We are extremely grateful for the passion of PlayStation fans and thank them for their continued support."

Apparently this makes it the best console start in PlayStation history.

People were saying how units would sell out no matter what and that the amount sold would be dependent on how many units they were capable of producing prior to launch, but this is still a pretty good number.

Solely according to a NeoGAF poster who has apparently compiled all other console sell through launch numbers (from NPD) within a single month:

I don't think we have day one numbers for most of them, and not for US + Canada anyway.

I have launch months for everything since the PS2 (but not the PS2), to closest 5K.

GBA (Jun '01) - 880K

Xbox (Nov '01) - 720K

GCN (Nov '01) - 660K

NDS (Nov '04) - 480K

PSP (Mar '05) - 620K

360 (Nov '05) - 325K

PS3 (Nov '06) - 195K

Wii (Nov '06) - 475K

3DS (Mar '11) - 400K

PSV (Feb '12) - 225K

Wii U (Nov'12) - 425K

If this is accurate, it's kind of a bit crazy that the PS4 has surpassed the others within the span of 24 hours. Then again, the NPD numbers themselves might be off seeing as how the Wii apparently actually sold 600k in its first week, but this post might explain the discrepancy.

Consoles are dead.

that's million units.

@jimbo: /thread

I wonder how much it will sell in europe/Australia and some parts of asia on the 29th ? That is 29 countries the PS4 will be launching in on the 29th i think.

My own optimistic guess was around 700k, have to hand it to Sony. Incredible.

Awesome news for Sony!

I'm kind of surprised that other consoles didn't hit a million in their first month, that just makes this even more impressive.

Europe's launch is going to be nuts.

@insane_shadowblade85: well the other consoles where sold out so...

Fantastic gif, exactly what I was going to say.

Really impressive since it's only North America, too. We'll see what happens when it launches in Europe.

Now let's wait for the aptly named Xbox One.

Good news for Sony. And also a reminder of how much things have changed since the PS3 launch. Over 5x as many as the PS3's first month in only a day.

You also kind of have to wonder if Microsoft is a little worried seeing just how many people seem to be embracing the PS4 early on. Most homes aren't going to have both of these consoles.

NUMBERS!

I'm glad there's comparison data otherwise anything in the millions /billions/ trillions kind've just doesn't make sense to me any more. I'm surprised the PS3 is the lowest on the list at launch but then again I guess it was super expensive at launch. I'd like to see PS2 on the list as well. If that had a good start or just steadily overtime got bananas.

Pretty impressive. If Sony has production nailed down and is able to keep the consoles flowing consistently to all territories through the holidays, they will make that 5 million target by the end of Q4 no problem.

I'm a teeny bit conflicted, though, because these day one sales suggest the Wii U is just kinda borked. Part of me had secretly hoped that the market for consoles had changed, and Wii U was floundering for reasons other than, you know, all of the many obvious ones. Don't get me wrong, I'm a very glad console gaming is (probably) in good shape. It's my preferred gaming by a lot. I'm just a bit sad that Wii U is as screwed as it has seemed.

Which is why I'm wondering how much supply factors in compared to the older launches. I don't think there's any doubt that if there were a million Wiis available then a million Wiis would have been sold in its first month

In any case, good on Sony for being able to have that much stock ready for sale and I hope this bodes well for the European launch

So we can put to bed the idea that Ipad's and other shit would cut into next gen sales then, right?

I especially don't like all that talk of this being the last real next gen launch.

I was expecting 600k in NA.

apparently amidst the massive sales of tablets and smart phones, no one thought to make the connection that people like spending a lot of money on consumer electronics

I hope more are in stock soon... I wanna buy one already damn it.

But people can play Angry Birds on a tablet, so who needs anything else?

Right?

Right??

Yeah, I never understood this mindset either. Tablets/phones are nice and all, but you are not going to play a game like Skyrim or Halo or Call of Duty on a 7 inch screen with bad sound and lousy controls. There is still a long term market for sitting in front of a big screen TV and playing games with a controller.

this stuff is only for handhelds. Console experiences are different from handheld ones.

@scroll: Remember when analysts were saying GTA V will only sell up to 18 million copies in its first year due to an over saturated console games market ? and it went on to sell almost 25 million copies in its first month of release.

The console market this Gen has shrunk a bit but all the doom and gloom about the PS4 and X1 is over exaggerated.

yeah, it hasn't even been launched in Europe yet or Australia. Typically very strong PS3 areas. It should bring in some pretty big numbers by the end of the month.

That also explains the failures. While small comparatively they represent a good amount of people. Kudos though.

Sell through does not mean sold to customers.

I am sure the PS4 did well. But sold through is a specific term that means shipped to stores. Ghosts sold through a billion dollars. A billion dollars worth of inventory was provided to stores. The Vita sold through X units on day one. Cept you can still buy those launch Vitas.

That's true, I completely forgot about that. I'm sure damn near every console would hit 1 million in their first month if there were 1 million of them available day one.

Yeah jeeez numbers so hard ehh, specially comparing two of them... together.

Anyway cool beans! Positive news for the industry!

@zelyre: Ah, that explains the discrepancy between word of mouth of consoles being easy to get and this story. The market is saturated with far more than enough PS4s for the rest of the holiday season. Heh. The reactions here are simply uninformed.

@mikey87144: There's actually been reports of interns at Foxconn deliberately putting led into the thermal paste. Apparently it will lead to a lot of bricked consoles that are frequently used day to day. It degrades the hardware much faster because of the heat not cooling off quick enough. PS4 under full load or idle will result in high temperatures. I would honestly wait till the Japanese launch and import from Japan.

@zelyre: It does mean it sold to customers. You are thinking of "Sell in"

No, sell-through means to customers. Sell-in means to retailers. They have actually sold 1 million units

http://editorialanonymous.blogspot.ca/2009/02/definitions-for-perplexed-sell-in-and.html

@zelyre: Sell through means exactly that. Shipped means sold to retailers. The PS4 sold 1 million units to consumers in the first 24 hours. This is a fact.

@roarimadinosaur: Sounds like FUD to me.

This means nothing, video games are still over, people.

Sold, not shipped. What you're describing is shipped. What Sony is talking about is sold.

Not complicated.

@themasterds: Is it really? I can't find a single one online to buy outside of the units people are trying to scalp for way to much money.

The word of mouth is that it's easy to get? What? Not only is your statement here that the "reactions are uninformed" hilarious given that the person you replied to is wrong, but everything I've seen is that PS4s are sold out everywhere which is why eBay prices are so high right now.

PS4 being the next PS2 confirmed.

The 360, Wii, PS3, PS4 and Xbox one sold/will sell every single unit they could produce at launch. So good on Sony for supplying way more than those other launches were able to.

You can tell they had plenty of supply since eBay prices are just slightly above retail. PS3s sold for well over a grand even a few weeks after launch (my college roommate got $3000 for one of his on launch day).

Boy thats a lot of units. Hope M$ can put up awesome numbers like that, will help the entire market!

It seems extremely short sighted for people to have put them up on ebay already. You gotta wait until people start getting desperate as christmas approaches. Not that I have sympathy for people who are doing scumbag things like scalping consoles

Still slightly paranoid over whatever I reserved my console in time or not...though I haven't had any emails say "Tough luck, didn't preorder in time!", so I'm assuming I'll be good. Over at Europe, that is.

Yeah. Woke up, saw the story, and thought it said sell-in!

The price point is a really good one, both for consumers and ebay flippers.Hopefully production keeps up with demand so that the ebay flippers are sitting on inventory they can't move.

I think this reinforces that analysts are full of shit. We've been saying for years now that the slower sales were related to how long in the tooth 360/ps3 were. All consumers wanted was new hardware. That being said, I think this is not a surprising number. They knew months ago that sales were going to be approaching this through preorders alone. The real test will be how well these systems sell in the next six months. At the end of the day, cost will be a factor. Personally, I'm a Xbox guy but having a hundred dollar difference is going to kill continued sales. With games at 60 a pop, and PS+ providing a steady stream of "free" games to make you feel better about your purchase I think we are going to see an eventual tank for Xbone sales. With the impending MS CEO choice, there is a lot of talk about Xbox being spun off or killed off. It makes financial sense for them. My guess, five years from now there will be PS4/WiiU/PC and MS will quietly get out of the party.

Cool.

Hopefully it does well and has some good games.

ALL UNITS.

@fluxwavez: I heard on the livestream that people who didn't preorder were just showing up not that long before launch and being able to get PS4s. That's easy to get in my book.

Launch day sales are generally limited by the number of units available, so all this really means is that Sony had more PS4's available at launch than those other consoles.

The real test is going to be how well sales hold up in the medium-term. I certainly don't think we're going to see Wii-like levels of sales over the months after launch. I'm sure it will sell fine, but the fact that it outsold the Wii in day/month one only means that Sony had more PS4 units available at launch than Nintendo had Wii units at launch.

@themasterds: Then all we have is anecdotal evidence, since it's obviously not the case for everyone.

I live in a large college town and 3 gamestops and the best buy have PS4's in stock (just checked). My hometown also have PS4's in stock, I would say it's easy to get here.

And easy to get is still good for Sony. Rarity is only a plus for the E-Bay resellers trying to make a quick buck. People seem to be gobbling up the PS4 in huge numbers and they had the foresight to have a lot of machines available. Good on them.