Microsoft has announced that the Xbox One has reached 2 million in total sales since its launch 18 days ago. The company says more than 111,111 consoles are being sold each day and on Amazon, customers were ordering the Xbox One console at over 1,000 units a minute during a peak. 

The reporting of Xbox One sales comes at a time when Microsoft hopes to beat competitor Sony's PlayStation 4 this Christmas season. Microsoft says the Xbox One is selling at a "record-setting pace for Xbox" with availability limited at many retailers worldwide. 

Read: Xbox One review

"We’re also particularly excited to see consumers engaging in a wide range of games and entertainment experiences on the platform, with more than 1 million paid transactions on Xbox Live to date,” said Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice-president of strategy and marketing at Xbox.

"Xbox One is also proving to be the most popular online multiplayer community for gamers with over 39 million Xbox One achievements unlocked and 595 million total Gamerscore achieved."

Microsoft and Sony both reported opening weekend console sales of 1 million last month. Furthermore, Sony beat Microsoft to the punch on 2 December, reporting the sale of 2.1 million consoles in the two weeks since its North American launch on 15 November. The PlayStation 4 landed in Europe shortly after. 

To give a sense of next-generation console performance in the UK, Chart Track, the UK games industry tracking company, suggested that the Xbox One sold 150,000 units and the PlayStation 4 sold 250,000 in the UK in just 48 hours.