PlayStation 5 has beaten the PS4’s record launch in units sold, Sony has announced.
Posting its Q3 2020 financial data on its official website, Sony revealed that 4.5m PS5 units were sold during its first three months on the market. For comparison, the PS5’s predecessor posted numbers of 4.2m up to December 28, 2013. The PS4 had sold 10m units by August 2014 but, with a shortage of AMD chips amid the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s unclear if PS5 sales will hit that figure in a similar timeframe.
In total, Sony shipped 5.9m consoles between October and December 2020. 1.4m PS4 units were sold compared to 6m across the same period in 2019, which reflects Sony’s shifting priorities to its current-gen hardware. The PS4’s total global sales figure now stands at 115.1m, according to industry analyst Daniel Ahmad.
Discussing its software sales for the quarter, Sony also confirmed that it had shipped 103.7m games across PS4 and PS5. Of that number, 18.4m were first party titles, and 53% of total game sales were digital-based. Monthly active users of PlayStation Network was back up to 114m — a number Sony had previously hit in Q1 2020 — after it fell by 6m in Q2. PS Plus numbers were also on the rise, with 1.8m new subscribers boosting the service’s userbase to 47.4m.
According to Ahmad, Q3 2020 was Sony’s best quarter for its gaming division. The company’s Game and Network Services Segment posted revenues of $8.43bn for the period ending December — a jump of 40% year-on-year and a new record for the gaming industry. Sony’s Operating Income also rose to $767m, which led to a 50% increase on Q3 2019. According to Resetera, Sony now expects to post a $3.3bn profit and secure $25.53bn in revenue by February 2021.
