Sony mantra since launching the PS3 five years ago has been that the console war is a marathon, not a sprint, and the latest sales numbers show it may have known what it was talking about.

Sony’s most recent quarterly results showed that the company shipped 3.7 million PS3 units, bringing the lifetime total to 55.5 million.

Meanwhile, the most recent published Xbox 360 shipment numbers were a little over 57.5 million, meaning the two consoles are closer than ever.

It’s especially significant when you backtrack and look at how the Xbox 360 was soaring far above the PS3 for years. The Xbox 360 also had a one-year head start on the PS3, so Sony is definitely closing in.

When the PS3 was initially released for $600, skeptics blasted the console and said it would be a colossal flop. Of course, today you can get an iPad for more than that and no one complains.

With the PS3, it was always about price. Everyone knew Sony had the most powerful console by far, but only few could afford to buy it. Now that the PS3 is affordable, for many people who have to decide which to get, the PS3 is a no-brainer decision.

The Xbox 360 has shown limitations in its “future-proof” capabilities, since early models had no HDMI port or built-in wireless Internet access, something that seems archaic by today’s standards. They also had no real internal storage, which has forced some users to buy external hard drives just to continue to play games online.

The PS3, meanwhile, though it has gone through some hardware changes, has been offering a consistent experience from day one. Sony may be onto something with its 10-year life cycle.