1 Million Kinects Sold in 10 Days

The holiday shopping season has yet to officially begin, but retailers already have a big seller on their shelves.

Microsoft (Stock Quote: MSFT) has sold a million units of Kinect in the first 10 days of the gaming system’s release. The company hopes that the momentum continues through the busiest shopping day of the year during Thanksgiving weekend.

"This is a great start to the holiday season, and we will continue to work with our retailer partners to keep pace with high demand and deliver against our plan to sell more than 5 million Kinect sensors worldwide by the end of this year," Don Mattrick, president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft said in a press release.

The Kinect, a motion-sensitive add-on that plugs into Microsoft’s popular Xbox360 gaming system, allows users to play games without a controller. According to Microsoft, more than 60,000 retailers in 38 countries are expected to carry it this holiday season.

"We have seen tremendous excitement from customers for Kinect for Xbox 360," Chris Homeister, senior vice president and general manager of the home entertainment group at Best Buy, said. "There were lines of customers at our stores all over the country on the night of the Kinect launch, and thousands more are trying it for themselves in our stores every day.

The hot item was able to sell so quickly in part because it was made available for pre-order prior to its initial release. It also benefitted from the popularity of the Xbox360 system itself, which is also seeing an increase in sales.