The Japanese tech conglomerate sold 7.1 million PS5 consoles during Q4 2022, marking a 3.1 million-unit improvement from Q4 2021 despite the company’s gloomy projections. Such a heavy discrepancy can likely be blamed on the chip shortage, which made PS5s—among other things—extremely difficult to manufacture at scale. That, combined with high demand, made PS5s nearly impossible to find at your average big box store or online retailer. The shortage was so severe that Sony extended the PlayStation 4’s time on the assembly line. (Notice I’m using the past tense here? That’s because Sony says the PS5 shortage is over.)
32.1 million consoles—enough to give every Texas resident a PS5—is likely a satisfying figure for Sony execs to see. Statista reports that Sony had shipped 30.2 million units by the PS4’s two-year mark. (The PlayStation 3 did far worse.) Successful consoles from other brands tend to sit around the low 30 millions, too: As our colleagues at IGN reported in 2019, the Nintendo Switch surpassed 32 million units by its second birthday, giving the highly popular GameBoy a run for its money.
(Image: Onur Binay/Unsplash)
Sony’s public financial documents combine the PS5’s and PS4’s software sales for a total of 86.5 million units. Nearly 21 million of these were first-party titles like the God of War and Uncharted franchises. Digital downloads made up 62% of software sales, matching the previous year’s trends. This figure is widely expected to climb as consoles without optical drives and digital download incentivization programs grow in popularity.
Sony’s FY2022 financial statement suggests that its gaming and network services (G&NS) division, which handles its consoles and gaming software, is its most lucrative division by a landslide. G&NS hauled in ¥433.3 billion ($3.29 billion) in 2022, up 53% from 2021. For comparison’s sake, Sony’s second-most profitable entertainment division pulled in only ¥65.9 billion ($500 million). Combined with the PlayStation Network’s 112 million monthly active users—up a million from 2021—this could mean Sony continues to commit itself long-term to the gaming sphere.
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