Sony has announced that the PlayStation Vita has shifted a total of 1.2 million units worldwide to date, following US and EU launches this month.

The console launched in Japan on December 17th last year, and according to Japanese sales data had sold just short of 379,000 consoles in that territory as of February 19th. That means that other territories - the EU, US, Latin America, Australia, and other Asian countries - have accounted for around 821,000 sales between them.

For comparison, the Nintendo 3DS sold 3.6 million in its first month on sale wordwide, falling short of Nintendo's stated 4m target. In its opening week it sold around 400,000 in the US, 371,326 units in Japan and 439,206 units in Europe, giving a total of 1.21 million units in those territories. It's very difficult to give directly comparable figures, though, as the 3DS was launched in Japan one month before other territories, whereas the PlayStation Vita had a two-month head start in Japan. Also, that first-week 3DS figure does not include data from South America, Australia and other smaller territories.

Software sales currently number around 2 million, Sony states, meaning that each purchaser has bought (almost) two games each on average.

These sales are neither spectacular nor catastrophic, and can be expected to pick up throughout the year - rather as 3DS sales did last year, causing many a red-faced pundit to withdraw earlier predictions of a quick demise for the console.


Source: PSVitaHub