Sega's Dreamcast is continuing its blistering sales record with over 185,000 units sold in its first four days of release on 14 October.

Sega said that in four days, Dreamcast clocked up retail sales of £52,000. More than 350,000 software units have been sold and 280,000 peripherals.

"The phenomenal interest shown throughout Europe for Dreamcast has beaten all of our highest expectations," commented JF Cecillon, chief executive officer of Sega.

In the UK, 63,000 Dreamcast consoles were sold in four days. This smashes all other records for the fastest selling games console in history.

According to industry figures, following their own launches, Playstation took nine days to sell 19,335 consoles, with Nintendo taking eight days to sell 28,611 consoles.

Sega needs to pull ahead as far as it can in the second generation console stakes, before Nintendo and Playstation release their Dreamcast competitors next year.