You can bicker all day about which console will end up with the best graphics, but it is not hard to see who is king in the online space. And just to rub a bit more dirt in Sony’s face, Microsoft has just let it be known that XBL has hit its 6 million members goal. This must be a relief for Microsoft, especially after the whole 10 million sold hoopla. Online consoles are growing at a huge rate and over the next 5 years I could see that number doubling if Microsoft can keep pumping out the good games and even better service. Here are some statistics that bear mentioning.

* Following the launch of the Xbox LIVE online gaming network in November 2002, gamers have spent over 2.3 billion hours on the network playing games online with their friends around the world. This is equal to 95 million days of gaming or over 260,000 years. With our top title, Halo 2, which is being played on both the Xbox and Xbox 360, gamers have spent over 710 million hours playing online with over a half a billion games played.

*To date, Xbox 360 owners have unlocked nearly 300 million Achievements. All of those unlocked Achievements have created a total combined Gamerscore of nearly 7.5 billion.

How many members do you think XBL will have by 2010, let us know in our comments section.