Kinect sales hit 8m in 60 days

At its CES 2011 keynote last night, platform holder Microsoft revealed that in its first 60 days on the market Xbox 360 motion camera Kinect has sold a very impressive 8m units worldwide.

The device sold 1m units in its first ten days on sale and then went on to reach the 2.5m milestone in its first three weeks.

That means that Kinect shifted over 5m units in the key Christmas period.

Crucially, it also means the accessory has performed above and beyond Microsoft’s own sales goals for 2010. In September the company announced hopes to shift 3m units by the end of the year, though this was later upped to 5m units.

Note, though, that while Microsoft referred to the 8m figure as a sales number, news agency Bloomberg is reporting it as referring to numbers shipped.

Speaking on Twitter, Microsoft’s chief of staff for Interactive Entertainment Business Aaron Greenberg confirmed that the 8m figure does refer to shipped units, but added that: "We have no channel inventory, so essentially the same. Every Kinect we make we sell."

In addition, Microsoft has also confirmed that global sales of the Xbox 360 console itself have hit 50m units. Xbox Live, meanwhile, now has 30m registered users, meaning around 5m new members have been added in the last year.