Global Xbox 360 sales have reached 55 million, Microsoft has announced.

Sales are accelerating, the console manufacturer said this afternoon.

"Xbox 360 maintains its lead in the US as the top selling console in 2011, and 10 of the past 11 months," said the company.

"In the first four months of 2011, Xbox 360 has seen a 29 per cent year over year increase in sales, which is more than triple the growth of PlayStation 3 and the largest growth of any console on the market."

Going by latest sales figures, the Xbox 360 is five million ahead of the PlayStation 3, which as of last month had sold 50 million consoles globally.

A record 14.3 million PS3s were sold during the 12 months to the end of March 2011.

Both consoles are, of course, some way behind Nintendo's Wii, which sold a whopping 86.01 million as of the end of March.

Meanwhile, Microsoft said there are now nearly 35 million active Xbox Live members worldwide, spending an average of almost 60 hours a month on the service. Cumulatively, Live members log 2.1 billion entertainment hours a month. That's three times as much video consumption compared to a year ago.

Kinect has sold more than 10 million units and the same number of Kinect games.