Remember the days when the PlayStation 3 was in third place in console sales? Well, it still is, but that won’t be the case for long if Sony sustains the strength of sales its console had in the month of October. Compared with October 2008, sales of the system were up 70% last month.

That’s not the only good news for Sony. Year over year downloads for its PlayStation Network service were also up. PSN can boast some impressive numbers - to date, users have downloaded 650 million pieces of digital content and Sony has garnered in excess of 31 million registered users.

EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich thinks that the PS3’s recent price drop, along with a torrent of triple A titles being released for the system, are contributing to its popularity, “Many believe a console race is a 100-meter dash, but it’s really a marathon.”