Microsoft has finally reached an important number in their quest for global dominance: they now have as many Xbox Live subscribers as there were victims of the Holocaust. Or — if you'd care for less tasteless analogy — citizens of Ireland.

Microsoft announced yesterday that there are over 4M Live subscribers in various hues of bronze, silver and gold. Not only that, they claim 6M users by June 2007. 70% of those users are downloading content; 9 millions voice and text messages are flying through the system every week. And — filling out random statistic theater — users have logged in over 2 billion hours since the system came online. That's almost 224,000 man years! Florian Eckhardt

4m people use Xbox Live [Eurogamer]

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