Actually we dont even need to compare to Xbox or Wii. We can simply compare to PS2. They were selling less than their precedent item, word of mouth were also way more negative and press wast too good either. Not the case anymore, great comeback.

As i noted in previous posts in this thread: 

In my opinion, you can only make a comeback if your ranking improves against the competition. That means passing the total numbers of Xbox360 or Wii.

What does it matter if the consoles aren't launched on the same day? Total numbers are total numbers. It's a bit unfair to be early, sure, but that's how it goes.

In the last gen the PS2 won (for a big part) because it launched early. That's why Microsoft did it too, with all the risks and gains it brought. If Nintendo is smart they would launch first for the next generation.

A last note:

It would have been better if Leo-j had clearly stated how a comeback was defined.

Well comeback come from 2 words, come and back. Back on the trail. Coming back from... Im not sure why you wanna impose ranking in that.

*facepalm* no one thought the ps3 would do wii numbers...... it launched at $600 dollars for crist sake, and shipped far less than the wii, and the main thing people love to forget was at the beginning of this gen Sony was losing $250 dollars per unit sold, so to think or say sony would do that doing the start is retarded, and I bet you can't find one article saying they would, what Sony and others have said was the "In TIME" the ps3 will catch up and pull ahead, which it will. ps3 has just now gotten to an entry price point.

Mostly

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/comeback

you don't need competitors for comeback to be correctly used, for example...Sony sells 2 million consoles one year, the next they only sell 500,00, then the 3rd year they sell 2 million consoles.  This by definition is a comeback regardless of competitors sales #'s.

A comeback it is,  greatest comeback ever, definatley not.

http://vgchartz.com/hwlaunch.php?cons1=PS3&reg1=All&cons2=PS3&reg2=All&cons3=X360&reg3=All&weeks=185

That doesn't look like a comeback. That looks like just increasing your sales pace by even more.

It is a race most definatly.

When a $150 xbox 360 comes out microsoft will be killing sony once again.

And by that time x box will be soon releasing a next gen console.

Then Ps3 gets a price cut and then PS4 will soon come out

And so forth and so forth releasing new systems cutting prices to keep up with competition

When you think about it Wii is the biggest come back ever.
However, within a single generation the way I see it is this:

To have a comeback your sales need to be in the doldrums with a lot (if not the majority) of people saying things like "This console is going to spell the exit of company A from the gaming industry" or "Company A could go bankrupt because of this console". And other such predictions of doom and destruction. Was PS3 subject to these predicitons? YES. Before the price cut PS3 was a very real possibility of finish its generation with worse sales than the gamecube, which is the worst selling console out of all the consoles among the 3 current console makers.

So the PS3 was in the right position for a comeback.

Next, your sales need to shift up a gear or 2 to permanently come out of the sales doldrums. Well it did that with quite a bang and it appears for the time being to be a permanent upward sales shift. This is contrary to what many people were predicting that the price cut would only boost sales for a brief period and PS3 would be back in third place weekly after maybe a month, and 360 would take 2nd place in the holidays quite easily. Also important is that your reputation needs to see a change in fortunes. PS3 was much maligned in the media, and in the gaming public for all the reasons we know and love. PS3 now has a lot of respect from the gaming media and the gaming public. That's quite a reversal.

So has the PS3 made a sales comeback? Only the most one eyed PS3 / Sony haters will say no; and they will define comeback in the most unrealistic of terms, being that the 3rd placed console needs to start outselling the #1 console permanently and to such an extent that will overtake it in LTD sales before the end of the generation. Ridiculous. If leo-J thought that is what would happen then he was overly optimistic. But that doesn't make his statement wrong. Has any console in history ever done this? AFAIK the answer is no. And only people who have no clue as to what comeback means would set that kind of bar. You haven't watched enough sports movies otherwise you'd know that comeback doesn't have to mean win.

So now that any reasonable person will agree PS3 has had a comeback, what makes it the biggest (within a generation) comeback ever? What makes it so is that it is a comeback on a bigger scale than what has been seen in console history before. If someone can point to a bigger comeback I'll be interested to see it.

Wii = biggest intergenerational comeback ever.

PS3 = biggest within a generation comeback ever (unless you can point out a console that has had a better one).

Good points there.