Sony today released figures touting that over 9.8 million people have become registered users of PSN. The company also stated that these individuals have accounted for over 170 million downloads of PS3 and PSP content.

With Sony claiming to have sold over 49 million units of the PS3 and PSP, this means that approximately 1 in 5 people are using the download service. Of course, there are restrictions that make the network impossible to access for some users (such as non-broadband internet), but it still seems that having only 20% of your audience access online features may be a bit low.

Even though the numbers are good, Sony still has a long way to go to cut into Xbox Live’s dominance in the medium. With the company reporting over 12 million paying subscribers for their Gold service, as well as an untold number of Silver users, Microsoft remains the top dog in the field.