Sony, maker of the PlayStation family of game consoles, says the PlayStation 4 has "sold through more than 50 million units to consumers worldwide as of December 6."

That's just a few weeks past the system's third birthday. It was originally released in the US on November 15, 2013. The worldwide sales number includes the original PS4 model, the recently released slim version and the new PlayStation 4 Pro.

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"We're truly delighted that the PS4 community continues to flourish since launch three years ago," Andrew House, president and global CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, said in a press release. "We will continue to provide the best gaming experiences available ... as we focus on accelerating our business and expanding the PS4 ecosystem."

The company also said it just had "best ever Black Friday week in the history of PlayStation." Some recent consumer interest may be driven by the new PlayStation VR headset, which is the only virtual reality system available for living room game consoles.

We've asked Microsoft for comparable lifetime hardware sales for the Xbox One, first released November 22, 2013, and will update this story if we get that figure.