Tokyo, Jan 7 (IANS/EFE): Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) Wednesday said its Playstation 4 gaming console sold over 4.1 million units around the world during the Christmas season, making it the highest-selling gaming console during the period as well as for the year 2014.

Despite the unavailability of sales data of its major competitors, Microsoft and Nintendo, the figures reported by Sony suggest that the Playstation 4 again dominated the gaming console market for the second consecutive year.

Taking into account these new figures, the company has already sold 18.5 million units of the console, SCE said in a statement.

Playstation 4 has been the fastest to reach this sales volume in the company's history, even quicker than Playstation 2, which, with a total of 155 million units sold, is the largest selling console of all time.

"The company's total sales for 2014, including sales of its previous-generation PlayStation 3 game machine and the PlayStation Vita handheld device, look to have topped 20 million units, exceeding the 19 million units sold in 2013," the Nikkei financial daily reported Wednesday.

Of these 20 million units, analysts believe that over 13 million units sold were that of Playstation 4.

It is estimated that in 2014, the other two domestic eighth generation consoles, Microsoft's Xbox One and Nintendo's Wii U, have sold a little over seven million and three million units, respectively.