Sony's virtual E3 booth pulled in 500,000 visitors

The virtual Sony booth in Home was a roaring success, attracting over half a million visitors during the week of E3.

VentureBeat reports that, by comparison, only 46,800 people were able to cram into the live press conference.

That's more than ten times as many virtual attendees than in-person; during E3 2010, only five times as many visitors attended the virtual booth as the real one.

The E3 booth included streaming content of games demonstrations, something usually reserved for large media outlets and swamped by traffic.

A 3D render of the PS Vita gave visitors the chance to get "hands on" with the device.

Home saw record traffic following the restoration of the PlayStation Network; as well as E3 content, Sony gave away 100 virtual items for use with the service, as part of its Welcome Back package.

The service has expanded rapidly over the last year, introducing developer tools allowing for high-quality games within Home. Over 230 games are available.