It is becoming harder and harder to debate which company is going to come out ahead in this hardware generation’s console wars, and while Xbox has made a few major strides in the last few months with built in Windows 10 support and backwards compatibility, Sony Corp’s PlayStation 4 still reigns supreme.

This week, Sony revealed that the sales figures for the PlayStation 4 have reached over 30.2 million units sold worldwide, inching it ever closer to the record set by the system’s ancestor, the PlayStation 2, which sold over 150 million units in its lifetime.

The PlayStation 4 has been especially dominant outside of the US. Earlier this year, Jim Ryan, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, said that he estimated that PlayStation controls an overwhelming majority of the console market in most European countries.

“We have a very significant market leadership,” Ryan said at the time. “Well, we have market leadership in every country in Europe, and have very significant market leadership in continental Europe. Extremely significant. I don’t think market-share’s any less than 70 percent, and frequently greater than 90 percent in continental Europe.”

Last month, Microsoft said that it would not be releasing information on how many Xbox One consoles it has shipped, saying that it would instead be using its Xbox Live subscription numbers as a metric for the system’s success. The company claimed that Xbox Live currently has over 39 million users, but this figure is somewhat misleading since it also includes users who are still playing on an Xbox 360.

Meanwhile, Nintendo Co Ltd’s Wii U continues to trail far behind the other consoles, and rumors continue to fly that Nintendo may already be phasing out the system as it prepares to release its next console, which is codenamed “NX.”

“PS4-Console-wDS4” by Evan-Amos – Media:PS4-Console-wDS4.jpg. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons.