Not wanting Microsoft to take all the credit with their Xbox Live numbers, Sony announced this morning that the PlayStation Network now has over 20 million accounts registered. It took them 1 year 2 months to get to 5 million and only 2 years 3 months time to rack up 20 million. Not too shabby.

I do take issue with these numbers, however. Sony does admit this includes both PS3 and PSP users, but doesn’t account for the fact that PlayStation Forum members and those who want to comment on Sony sites need to register for a PSN account as well. Couple this with many PS3 owners having multiple accounts per console and it’s tough to see exactly how many PlayStation 3 users are really utilizing the PSN. I doubt we’ll ever really get the truth there for any system.

All in all, though, you do have to give Sony credit for growing the PlayStation Network from nothing when the PS3 launched to where it is today. They’ve made huge strides in just a little over two years. It’ll be interesting to see where things go over the next two years.

Here’s the full press release:

Registered Accounts on PlayStation(R)Network Exceed 20 Million Worldwide

Remarkable Milestone Achieved in Only 2 Years and 3 Months Since Its Launch on November 11, 2006

TOKYO, Feb. 25 /PRNewswire/ — Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) today announced that the cumulative number of registered accounts on PlayStation®Network worldwide has exceeded 20 million as of February 20, 2009.  The registered accounts on PlayStation Network reached 5 million in 1 year and 2 months, 10 million in 1 year and 8 months, and exceeded 20 million in only 2 years and 3 months from the service launch on November 11, 2006 (*1).  The number of users connected to PlayStation Network is ever growing, thus successfully building a robust network business platform.

PlayStation Network is a free to access network service for PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3®) computer entertainment system and PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) handheld entertainment system, that has more than 70 million sell-in units (*2) around the world both platforms combined.  Directly accessible from PS3, PSP or PC, users are able to enjoy a broad range of on-line content and services, including on-line gaming, video chat and text messaging with other PS3 users on-line, as well as many games and video content downloadable from PlayStation®Store.  Since its launch, PlayStation Network has expanded its services to over 55 countries and regions around the globe, gaining strong support from users for its breadth of entertainment content available for both PS3 and PSP systems in addition to its free to use basic features and services.

To offer more fun and excitement to users, PlayStation Network is continually enhancing gaming experience through online game features such as online battle and team play, as well as adding more and more downloadable game items.  More than 600 titles incorporated with online features have been released for the PS3 system worldwide, including Resistance: Fall of Man™, Gran Turismo™ 5 Prologue and LittleBigPlanet™ from SCE.

PlayStation Store offers more than 14,500 diverse digital content, ranging from exclusive on-line games, downloadable versions of UMD™ titles, game demos and items, and titles from “Game Archive,” through which legendary and popular titles from the original PlayStation are made playable on PS3 and PSP, to more than 5,900 movies and TV episodes that are available through Video Delivery Service (*3) that started in the United States in July 2008.  To date, more than 380 million pieces of content (*4) have been downloaded, with total sales exceeding 180 million US dollars (*5), and the business scale is rapidly expanding.

PlayStation®Home launched its service in December 2008 and in less than 2 months, the number of users has exceeded 4 million.  Within the ground-breaking 3D environment, users are able to meet, share gaming experiences, and enjoy communication with each other. Collaborative initiatives with various game titles and franchises are underway to offer more new fun on games in the world of PlayStation Home as it evolves over time, adding new spaces, features and functions to create a living, growing platform for the PlayStation community.

Additionally, the number of users enjoying Life with PlayStation® has now exceeded 2.6 million (*6).  Life with PlayStation offers users a new way to obtain information on a TV monitor in the living room by connecting it to the network via PS3.  With “time” and “place” as keywords, Life with PlayStation will add more channels to enjoy content on the internet and broaden the world of entertainment beyond the realms of games that is made possible through connecting PS3’s vast computational power to the network.

SCE, along with content providers and users will continue to further expand the entertainment experiences with PS3, PSP and PlayStation Network to create a new world of computer entertainment.

*1  Launched in Japan on November 11, 2006.
*2  PS3: 21.3 million units as of December 2008, PSP: 50 million units as
of January 2009.
*3  Launched in July 2008.  As of February 2009, over 1,400 movies and
4,400 TV episodes are available for download.
*4  Includes free of charge content (downloadable demos and promotion
videos).
*5  As of February 2009.
*6  As of February 2009.