Considering the avalanche of pre-orders for the PlayStation 4 leading up to its Nov. 15 release date, the next-gen console's breakout success should come as no surprise—the PS4 sold more than 1 million units in North America within 24 hours of being released. 

President of Sony's Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida announced the PS4 sales figures on Twitter: "PS4 has sold through over 1 million units within 24 hours of the launch in North America!!!"

Sony Vice President of Publisher and Developer Relations Adam Boyes also confirmed the news through Twitter, and thanked fans for their loyalty:

"Thanks to all of you gamers in getting us to 1,000,000 sales of #PS4 in our first 24 hours!"

According to IGN, this potentially puts the PlayStation 4 on a pathway to fastest-selling console ever, though, the Xbox One's impending launch on Nov. 22 certainly makes that a dubious proposition. What also makes this feat so impressive is that these figures only represent the numbers for North America, so when the PlayStation 4 is launched in other regions this number should jump even higher.

To put these numbers in perspective, the Wii managed to achieve 1 million in sales in the first few days of its launch, but the console was launched in North America, Europe, and Japan all at once, while the PlayStation 4 is currently only available in North America. When the console is released to these critical regions, the sales figures will shoot up even more, and the PlayStation 4 could retain the top spot even after the Xbox One is launched.

Selling over 1 million consoles is especially impressive when compared to the launch of the previous generation of consoles. The PlayStation 3 managed to sell 197,000 in the first week in the United States, while the Xbox 360 sold 326,000 in two weeks after launch. When compared to the Wii U, which sold 425,000 consoles in the first week in the United States, the PlayStation 4 surpassed this number in roughly 12 hours. 

While the initial numbers are strong, there could be many factors that could derail the PlayStation 4's momentum. With the launch out of the way, a low amount of supply could halt sales, and technical problems could also emerge to cause fans to turn against Sony and the console.