At the same time, Xbox games have been selling in record numbers. On average, gamers are purchasing several first- and third-party Xbox games every time they buy an Xbox. The most popular games to date include "Halo™," "Project Gotham Racing™" and "NFL™ Fever 2002" from Microsoft, as well as "Dead or Alive 3™" from Tecmo, Electronic Arts' "Madden NFL™ 2002" and Activision, Inc.'s "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater™ 2x."

"Since the launch, Xbox has driven tens of thousands of gamers into our stores," said Dan DeMatteo, president of GameStop Inc. "Each Xbox shipment we receive sells out immediately, but the great news for gamers is that we're getting new Xbox systems multiple times each week."

"We're very pleased with the consumer response to Xbox, having surpassed the 1 million mark at breakneck speed," said Robbie Bach, chief Xbox officer at Microsoft. "This substantiates our belief that gamers would make Xbox one of the hottest gifts for the holidays."

Microsoft plans to ship at least 300,000 additional units into North American retailers through the end of year, putting the system on target with Microsoft's goal of delivering 1 million to 1.5 million units for the calendar year. Xbox is the only system being manufactured in close proximity to U.S. retailers, accelerating the manufacturer-to-retailer cycle.