Market research firm Asymco recently compared cumulative sales of home console and handheld gaming devices to the number of registered users for the iOS Game Center service as a way to measure iOS as a gaming platform. Apple noted during its keynote address at this year's Worldwide Developers Conference that Game Center—a free service that facilitates high score tracking, achievements, and online play—has 130 million users. Asymco suggests that number can serve as a proxy for the number of iOS gamers; as such, they put iOS well ahead of any current console, and trail just behind the Nintendo DS's roughly 150 million unit sales. Considering the Playstation 2's roughly 150 million unit sales, that would rank iOS as the third most popular gaming platform of all time.
The raw sales figures alone put the iOS platform itself far beyond any dedicated gaming platform. Apple has sold over 400 million total iOS devices, which beats the combined sales of all current-generation consoles as well as combined sales of portable gaming platforms. As our own Senior Gaming Editor Kyle Orland noted, "Even with a small percentage of iOS users actively gaming, as measured by Game Center, it's still bigger than most any major console."
Asymco says that at its current growth rate, Game Center users could likely exceed the 150 million mark by September. They could break the 200 million mark by year's end. No other dedicated gaming platform has reached sales of 200 million units.