http://news.softpedia.com/news/Xbox-360-30-Million-Sold-Globally-112805.shtml

Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE are a hit with gamers. The Redmond company announced that it managed to break new milestones in 2009 in terms of the sheer volume of consoles sold, but also in the growth of the online community that has been building up around Xbox. The software giant has released the results of the year-over-year comparison of Xbox 360 sales, and has indicated that the number of consoles sold grew by 28% in 2009 compared to the previous year, according to data from the NPD Group. Microsoft sold no less than 30 million Xbox 360 consoles worldwide. And the boost in sales was also reflected in the expansion of the Xbox LIVE community, which now accounts for in excess of 20 million active members.

The Redmond company claims that the 28% growth rate for Xbox 360 sales in 2009 has all competitors beat. The high number of Xbox console users has elevated the Xbox LIVE community to the position of the world's top entertainment network. Microsoft explains that the success is catalyzed by a number of factors, including access to a consistent catalog of movies and TV shows, the social networking capabilities, and the opportunity for gamers to play their favorite titles.

All Xbox 360 retail categories have generated over $14.5 billion in revenue over the Xbox 360 generation. Microsoft revealed that more than 1 billion items, both gaming titles and entertainment materials, had been accessed through the Xbox LIVE Marketplace. At the same time, the Xbox 360 helped gaming developers sell over $5.9 billion worth of content, with gamers acquiring on average 8.3 titles per person.

Another Source - http://www.cinemablend.com/games/30-Million-Xbox-360-s-Sold-Worldwide-17816.html

Microsoft announced today that they've sold 30 million Xbox 360 consoles throughout the worldwide. That's not the only big number they're bragging about in this here press release, though.

Xbox Live apparently now has over 20 million active users. It's not clear what being an "active" user entails but I assume they're going by registrations. Also not revealed in the press release is how many of those users are Xbox Live Gold members - a premium subscription needed to play most games online - and how many have free Xbox Live Silver memberships.

The announcement notes that nearly 1 billion "pieces of gaming and entertainment content" have been downloaded through Xbox Live Marketplace. Once they hit a billion, I suspect we'll get another press release.

For some funny reason, I have a feeling that MS is referring to vgchartz numbers to make this announcement...

Anyways, this is spot on for VGChartz!!

actually, Microsoft would get numbers from every tracker and could easily combine those to determine how much is sold world wide.

Either way, VGC is either spot on, or slightly overtracked depending on when this data is supposed to be through. I don't see any dates other than the fact that it was posted today. If the sales are supposed to be through May 23rd than we're spot on.

nordlead took all the interesting things to say :P

Well done VGChartz and MS for this

Also, shouldn't this be in sales discussion (actually, I was hoping that VGC2.0 would introduce the ability to put a thread in multiple sections, ie this one could be in both the MS section and sales section)

But I digress

^yes this confirms VGC's tracking to be on the spot.......In feb/09 MajorNelson went on G4 tv and declare 17 million online users..I can't remember is he said Gold or not.....3Mill in 3 months is quite a swell

Hmm, are they quoting trackers or is this shipped?

They mention data from NPD, so there is no reason to believe this is shipped.

Microsoft announced they shipped over 30 million end of March

That is also possible, considering the shipment number they announced was 30.2 million at the end of March. But if they are referring to that number it is still likely they are above 30 million sold by now.

Alright. Thanks for the clarification. I wasn't exactly where all the worldwide numbers were coming from.

I wonder how they count Xbox Live users. I have not paid for a couple of years but still get my monthly email updates (to my computer) about Xbox Live.

Also, 30M is an important milestone. This will mark the first generation that more than one console has passed the Atari 2600 level of success (the Genesis just missed). So Microsoft should be congratulated.

Similarly, the number shows that VGC tracking is pretty close - and worth far more than what we pay for it.

Mike from Morgantown