Little by little, the PS5 continues to make its nest. Despite the huge stock problems that continue to hamper sales of the machine, Sony’s latest console remains on a good pace (although this is still below the Japanese firm’s expectations). Thus, during the last quarter, 2.4 million additional consoles were sold by Sony, representing a 0.1% increase in sales. The PS5 is fast approaching 22 million machines sold.
The PS5 on the way to 25 million units
© Presse-citron / Unsplash / Tamara Bitter / Ivan Mercado
As the PS5 passed the symbolic milestone of 20 million copies in June, we learn today that the console peaked at 21.7 million units sold. Thus, during the second quarter of 2022, 2.4 million PlayStation 5s found buyers. Sales curves which are stable and which are sufficient to satisfy Sony in this period of crisis. On the other hand, the figures are well below forecasts. Sony planned to reach 25 million copies before the end of the year and this objective seems to be more and more complicated.
| DATE | PS4 WINDOWS | DATE | PS5 SALES |
|---|---|---|---|
| December 1, 2013 | 2,1 millions | November 25, 2020 | 2,3 millions |
| December 31, 2013 | 4,2 millions | December 31, 2020 | 4,5 millions |
| 31 Mars 2014 | 6 millions | 31 Mars 2021 | 7,8 millions |
| Early August 2014 | 10 millions | July 10, 2021 | 10,01 millions |
| December 31, 2014 | 20,2 millions | December 31, 2021 | 17,3 millions |
| 31 Mars 2015 | 22,5 millions | 31 Mars 2022 | 19,2 millions |
| June 3, 2015 | – | June 3, 2022 | 20 millions |
| July 31, 2022 | – | July 31, 2022 | 21,7 millions |
On the gaming side, it’s not as glorious. During the previous quarter, 47.1 million titles were sold on PS4 and PS5. That is 16 million less than last year at the same period. First-Party games (therefore exclusive) also fell with 6.4 million games sold, against 10.5 million last year. On the other hand, the market for digital games continues to grow with 79% of sales in this sector (compared to 71% last year).
As for PlayStation Plus, the latter is in a good dynamic with no less than 47.3 million subscribers. A colossal figure that shows the strength of the service with one million additional subscribers since last year. This still represents a very slight drop from the previous quarter, since at the start of 2022, there were 47.4 million PS Plus subscribers. Currently, the number of active users of PlayStation Network services stands at 102.5 million per month.
La PS4 is missing
© Amazon
For the first time since the release of the PS5 in November 2020, Sony is not addressing the issue of the PS4 and its sales. Thus, everything suggests that the console (which is currently the fourth best-selling console in history with 117 million copies) would be at the very end of its life. It’s a safe bet that the year 2022 will be one of the last years of the PS4 with games coming out on both consoles (PS4 and PS5).
Everything suggests that Sony could definitely turn to the next-gen in 2023.
