PlayStation 5 sales pass 38m after record-breaking quarter
PS Plus also on the rise.
Sony has now sold over 38m PlayStation 5 consoles, after selling a huge 6.3m units in the past quarter.
That's a record high for this specific quarter for sales of any console in history. The equivalent sales of the console last year were 2m units. By further comparison, the PS4's biggest Q4 sales were 3m units.
Added to last quarter's 7.1m units and it's clear that PlayStation 5 sales are very much on an upward trajectory following stock shortages since launch.
Total PlayStation 5 sales for Sony's fiscal year 2022 reached 19.1m units, just clearing its target of 19m units. Compared to the previous fiscal year, Sony has almost doubled its hardware revenue.
By comparison, the PS4 had sold over 40m consoles by this point in its lifetime, though did not suffer the same stock shortage issues. It seems likely Sony's latest console will surpass lifetime sales of its predecessor.
Now Sony is projected to ship 25m PlayStation 5 consoles in its next fiscal year (ending March 2024), which would be a record for the company.
In terms of software, Sony first party titles sold 68m units on PlayStation 5 in the last quarter, down on Q3's 86.5m due to the release of God of War Ragnarök. This is slightly down from the equivalent quarter last year (70.5m), but about average for software sales across all quarters.
Digital downloads accounted for 70 percent of game sales - again about average.
As for PlayStation Plus subscribers, this increased to 47.4m subscribers last quarter from 46.4m previously. That addition of a million subscribers takes the service to its highest number of subscribers since the revised service launched in June last year.
What's more, revenue for Network Services (which includes PS Plus) for the past fiscal year reached ¥464.7bn, an increase on the previous year's ¥409.4bn. This is likely due to the increased price of the subscription.
PlayStation boss Jim Ryan said at the start of the year: "Everyone who wants a PS5 should have a much easier time finding one at retailers globally, starting from this point forward."
Judging by these latest figures, that's certainly the case.