Raspberry Pi blasts through 5 million sales mark

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has broken the five million sales barrier, making it one of the most popular British computers of all time.

Released in 2012, the Foundation expected to initially sell around 10,000 units. However, the Pi captured the imagination of enthusiasts across the globe, becoming a sleeper hit.

In the UK, the Pi has played a pivotal role in introducing children to coding, and it's likely to provide long-term benefits to the economy by helping to nuture the next-generation of software developers.

The Pi still has some way to go before it overtakes Amstrad, which sold approximately 8 million units between 1984 and 1997.

But, given the foundation has only just released the sequel, the ever-expanding Pi family is on course to become the most successful British computer ever made.

"The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a charity. That means that we personally don't make a profit from the Pi all profits go straight back into our educational mission and into R&D," noted Liz Upton, head of communications on the Raspberry Pi blog.

"Your five million purchases mean that we're able to train teachers for free; provide free educational resources; undertake educational outreach; fund open-source projects like XBMC (now Kodi), PyPy, Libav, Pixman, Wayland/Weston, Squeak, Scratch, Webkit and KiCad."