PlayStation hardware maintained strong momentum throughout the Christmas period.

5 million PlayStation branded consoles were sold during the Christmas period (November 18th to December 31st, 2011), Sony has announced.

Of those sales, more than 500k units were contributed by the PlayStation Vita, following its Japanese launch on December 17th.

But it was the PlayStation 3 that was the big seller — moving a whopping 3.9 million units during the festive period. Sony said that the strong sales of the home platform meant it was still on target to hit its lofty 15 million target by the end of the fiscal year on March 31st.

Pleasingly, the PlayStation Move also did reasonably well — selling 1.7 million units during the same period. Speaking at Sony's CES press conference, Kaz Hirai pledged more dedicated support for the peripheral throughout 2012 — starting with Sorcery and Grand Slam Tennis 2 early in the year.

The PSP and PlayStation 2 made up the final numbers — selling a respectable 1.6 million units and 500k units respectively.

“SCE will continue to deploy various measures to further expand the PlayStation business with strong support from users as well as 3rd party developers and publishers, and will vigorously enhance the world of computer entertainment system that is possible only on the PlayStation platforms,” the company said in a press release.

These updated numbers paint a promising picture for the PlayStation ecosystem all around, and it's outstanding to see four of the platform holder's systems all maintaining relevance around the world. We suspect we're nearing the end of the PlayStation 2's life — but it's probably got another 12-to-18 months left in it yet, which really is staggering.

It's the PlayStation 3's success that makes us most satisfied though. After a shaky start, Sony's home console has really come into its own over the past couple of years. Long may it continue.