Microsoft claims it has sold a total of 17.7 million Xbox 360 consoles thus far, with 4.3 million sold in Q4 of 2007.

The software giant had a somewhat rough ride with the Xbox, not only facing strong opposition in the guise of Nintendo's affordable Wii, but also having to deal with service issues, which cost the company over a billion dollars and Xbox Live troubles. Xbox Live General Manager, Mark Whitten, claims the Live problems can be attributed to a massive increase in the number of users over the holidays.

Apart from the holidays, one of the principle reasons for the recent success of Microsoft's console is the Halo 3 launch in late Q3. The company claims it has sold over 8.1 million copies so far. Mass Effect is also doing well, with sales topping 1.6 million.

Nintendo hasn't revealed Wii holiday sales figures, but if you're a regular you probably remember our report about Amazon's claim that it managed to sell 17 Wiis per second over the holidays, when it was in stock, that is. On some markets, Nintendo chose to halt Wii advertising, since it could simply not meet demand, and tried pushing the DS, instead.

The Japanese toymaker also faced some availability issues with its Wii, but nonetheless it has sold a total 13.2 million Wiis so far. Sony is still lagging behind Microsoft and Nintendo, with PlayStation 3 sales of 5.6 million globally, although things seem to be getting better for the pricey PS3.

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