There’s a well worn saying that software doesn’t sell on the PlayStation 3, at least in comparison to the Xbox 360. However, things may be changing, since there’s been a significant improvement in both the PS3’s software and hardware sales. Despite a lower installed base, software sales on the PS3 have outstripped that of the Xbox 360 in the fiscal-2009 year.

We’ve gone into detail over PS3 hardware sales, but now it’s the chance of software. The PlayStation 3 enjoyed 115.6 million software sales in the Sony’s 2009-fiscal year (runs from May 1st 2009 to April 30th 2010), up from 2008’s 103.7 million units. Surprisingly, despite a lower hardware installed base, this performance was better than that of the Xbox 360, which achieved 103.1 million software sales. The PS3’s boost is sure to have been caused by a number of key exclusive releases, such as God of War III.

This increased software performance has also had an impact on its attach rate. That is, the average number of software units to each console sold. In its lifetime the PS3 has now sold 290.5 million software units, compared to 35.7 million PS3s. That puts the PS3’s attach rate at an impressive 8.1 copies per console. That’s now in touching distance of the Xbox 360’s 8.8 attach rate.

Just for fun, we can also compare these software sales to that of the PS1 and PS2 at the same four-year period in their lifetime. The PS1 had sold 236.0 million software units, compared to the PS2’s massive 350.0 million. We’ve included a table below illustrating the fiscal-2009 software sales for each platform (in millions) alongside their lifetime-to-date software sales, lifetime-to-date hardware sales, and their adjoining software attach rates. Enjoy mulling over it.