PlayStation 5 surges past 75 million as Sony dominates the console race

Cal Jeffrey

Cal Jeffrey

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Editor's take: Sony tightened its grip on this generation's console war, with PlayStation 5 sales soaring to over 75 million. Meanwhile, Xbox Series X|S sales remain somewhat stagnant at 28.3 million units. Substantial gaming revenue helped prop up weaker performances in Sony's film and financial services divisions, keeping the company solid.

Sony's third-quarter earnings for fiscal year 2024 look great, largely thanks to the PlayStation 5's continued success. The PS5 had its best-ever holiday period in 2024, shipping 9.5 million units – only a hair behind PlayStation 4's best quarter in FY2017. With total shipments topping 75 million, the PS5 is closing in on the PS4's 76.5 million units set at the same stage of its lifecycle. Sony has shipped 15.7 million PS5 consoles so far this fiscal year and aims to hit 18 million by the end of March. This surge in hardware sales has driven the company's growth across the board.

In fact, Sony posted a solid 18-percent jump in revenue, hitting ¥4.41 trillion ($28.97 billion US), with operating income creeping up by a percentage point, totaling ¥469.3 billion ($3.08 billion). As expected, the gaming division is leading the charge, with PlayStation 5 sales continuing to push the momentum, along with boosts from software and PlayStation Network subscriptions. The positive results caused an early morning boost to company shares, rising from $21.97 to $23.91 – an 8.8-percent spike.

Even though the hardware market has been sluggish, the PlayStation 5 is still going strong. Demand is steady, and Sony has blown past expectations with third-party software sales. The PlayStation Network also beat expectations, hitting 129 million monthly active users – up 10 percent from last year. PlayStation Plus growth helped to keep recurring revenue from services solid. The shift to live services and digital games is also helping Sony maintain the lead in the gaming sector.

However, it's not all about gaming. Sony Music is doing well, with streaming revenues climbing and some major albums making waves. Conversely, Sony Pictures took a hit. The Hollywood strikes in 2023 caused production delays and fewer big releases in FY2024, so revenue dropped. Thankfully, streaming and licensing deals helped ease the pain.

Sony's Imaging & Sensing Solutions segment is holding steady. With smartphone cameras getting more advanced and AI-powered sensors becoming the norm, Sony is still a major player in smartphone supply chains. Unfortunately, its Financial Services division didn't do as well, with a dip in operating income thanks to some of the market turbulence we've seen lately.

Looking ahead, Sony is optimistic. It has raised its forecast for operating profits to ¥1.34 trillion ($8.7 billion) for the fiscal year ending in March 2025. Sony is driving momentum forward with the PlayStation ecosystem in full swing and a lineup of games set to drop soon. Furthermore, the company appears ready to keep pushing into live-service games, cloud gaming, and acquisitions to stay ahead of the curve. If everything goes according to plan, PlayStation will keep running the show through at least this generation.

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PlayStation 5 surges past 75 million as Sony dominates the console race

 
75 million shipped units is a totally different story than 75 million units SOLD to actual customers.

It means there are still millions of PS5 systems still seating in stores's warehouses world wide waiting to be sold.
 
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redgarl said:
BUT BUT BUT SONY IS IN TROUBLE...
Click to expand...
Actually by now Sony should have SOLD at least 75 million PS5 units not just shipped to stores' warehouses.

Besides given the fact that Xbox hasn't even tried in giving Sony any competition the PlayStation 5 should have crossed 100 millions units SOLD already.
 
The Talking Tech said:
Actually by now Sony should have SOLD at least 75 million PS5 units not just shipped to stores' warehouses.

Besides given the fact that Xbox hasn't even tried in giving Sony any competition the PlayStation 5 should have crossed 100 millions units SOLD already.
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Please keep explaining how selling twice as many consoles is somehow making Sony lose the console race, it sure makes a lot of sense
 
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bviktor said:
Please keep explaining how selling twice as many consoles is somehow making Sony lose the console race, it sure makes a lot of sense
Click to expand...
There's no such thing as a console race, as I said Xbox hasn't even tried the entire generation even now making it more clear by releasing games on PlayStation and Nintendo is practically running a handheld business with a fraction of hardware capabilities in comparison.

In other words the PlayStation 5 should have been selling far better than the PS4 ever did.
 
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The Talking Tech said:
Actually by now Sony should have SOLD at least 75 million PS5 units not just shipped to stores' warehouses.

Besides given the fact that Xbox hasn't even tried in giving Sony any competition the PlayStation 5 should have crossed 100 millions units SOLD already.
Click to expand...

You are trying too hard to hate on Sony. Sony are more than happy with the sales and so are shareholders but you aren't , lol .

Hating comes across as just sad sometimes.
 
Meh. Let's wait and see Nintendo demolish Sony and Microsoft in console sales later this year. Switch 2 is going to do way better than PS5. Mass market appeal, solid collection of games, no obnoxious subscription required to make a lot of games work properly.
 
bviktor said:
Please keep explaining how selling twice as many consoles is somehow making Sony lose the console race, it sure makes a lot of sense
Click to expand...
Microsoft has already shifted away from the console by actively advertising that their games are playable on console and PC. Consoles are basically glorified PC builds now. As they should be. The idea that developers will spend any more time supporting other consoles when they don't even spend enough time fixing the game is the main reason why consoles have shifted to PC architectures.
 
gingerbill said:
You are trying too hard to hate on Sony. Sony are more than happy with the sales and so are shareholders but you aren't , lol .

Hating comes across as just sad sometimes.
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He is absolutely right. Xbox imploded this generation and PS5 sales are still trailing PS4 sales in the same time frame, despite the boost from the PS5 Pro they had this last quarter. That means the AAA console market as a whole isn't just stagnant as it was last gen, it's outright shrinking now. All while Nintendo, PC and mobile are still growing. This is a disaster for the AAA console market.
 
The Talking Tech said:
There's no such thing as a console race, as I said Xbox hasn't even tried the entire generation even now making it more clear by releasing games on PlayStation and Nintendo is practically running a handheld business with a fraction of hardware capabilities in comparison.

In other words the PlayStation 5 should have been selling far better than the PS4 ever did.
Click to expand...

Not really; remember that Xbox as a brand has always been irrelevant outside the US/UK, so it isn't like there were a ton of sales to pick up relative to the PS4. The difference is likely due to the pickup of PC gaming, as well as the Switch being the console a lot of people ended up going with for their one console.

Regardless, the console war is effectively over, and I'd be surprised if Microsoft makes another Xbox given how they really can't afford to keep their big titles exclusive to the brand anymore. Sony won by default.
 
poshflamingos said:
He is absolutely right. Xbox imploded this generation and PS5 sales are still trailing PS4 sales in the same time frame, despite the boost from the PS5 Pro they had this last quarter. That means the AAA console market as a whole isn't just stagnant as it was last gen, it's outright shrinking now. All while Nintendo, PC and mobile are still growing. This is a disaster for the AAA console market.
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The console war is effectively over. Game costs have risen so much even Microsoft can't afford to keep it's exclusives locked to its own HW, making their HW business (which was a money looser even in the best of times) a tough sell going forward.

But again, none of this has been shocking. There's never really been a point in time where the console market could sustain three manufactures at the same time, aside from the oddity that was the Wii. Nintendo owns the budget/mobile ends of the market, Sony rules the high end. There's really no space for the Xbox to compete.
 
Pretty crazy how sony had a wild series of blunders last year (concord, live service GOW, mandatory PSN accounts for PC, PS5 pro price, layoffs, super-fungible tokens) and yet they keep on winning. hope they keep bringing their games on PC.
 
It is good to track the amount of people who pay monthly fees, but probably means nothing in terms of profit gained from hardware alone.
PC has a good reason to be more expensive, it is much cheaper to own over longer time.
 
Don't know how many times it has to be said but there is no race or console war. Please stop making up things for clicks.
Microsoft has stated plenty of times it's not worried about any console race or war. It's not a focus for MS, never was. They make a console because they can not because they have too. Sony isn't in that same boat, they need a console.

MS is about software n services and they dominat that area. An area that Sony cant ever compete.
 
Amazing how PlayStation keeps breaking records while Xbox keeps trying to convince us that “Game Pass is the future.” Maybe the real future is just selling a ton of consoles the old-fashioned way.
 
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airbornex said:
Amazing how PlayStation keeps breaking records while Xbox keeps trying to convince us that “Game Pass is the future.” Maybe the real future is just selling a ton of consoles the old-fashioned way.
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If it's possible to play Xbox games without a console while they earn profit, maybe they're right?

 
Another major reason that console sales are down is because PC sales are up; In 2024, global PC shipments grew 3.8% to 255 million units, according to Canalys.
 
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