Now that the Holiday gaming rush is over and things are settling back down, gamers are preparing to unload their wallets for 2011’s lineup of ridiculously good games. On top of that console manufacturers are releasing figures of the past quarter and for the last fiscal year-to-date as well in order to indirectly fuel the console war flames once more.

Surprisingly, despite the record breaking sales months for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 in both November and December, Sony has been able to quietly cut into Microsoft’s overall market share lead by bringing it down to 2.1 million units in difference. The figures previously reported were a differential of 2.9 million units of difference in October 2010.

Earlier this morning, Sony revealed its Q3 financial report which disclosed that the console manufacturer had reached the 47.9 million mark by the end of 2010. Microsoft on the other hand revealed in early January at CES that they had moved 50 million consoles by the same point in time.

The fact that Sony has been able to remain hot on the heels of Microsoft’s slight market share lead despite a 500 billion dollar marketing blitz for Kinect only continues the belief that the PlayStation 3 is continuing to pick up steam. Considering the strong lineup of PlayStation 3 exclusives due out in 2011, this could potentially be the year that Sony overtakes its main competitor.

In other news related to the PlayStation 3, Sony has reported a strong 10 million increase in software sales for the past year moving from 47 million units sold to 57 million. This increase has helped its gaming division significantly as it has allowed Sony to post a massive profit margin for the quarter and inevitably, the fiscal year. Given all of this data, 2011 is heating up despite the cold fronts here in North America to be quite the exciting year for those of you following sales data closely.