Sony's fourth quarter earnings report released on Tuesday shed light on the sales performance of the PlayStation 5. The company has sold through to retailers 7.8 million units since its November launch and 3.3 million units between January and March.
That means the PS5 in on track to outpace the PlayStation 4's first-year sales performance, and its first two quarters are more than double the sales of the troubled PlayStation 3 over the same time period. (The PS4 sold 7.6 million units in its first two quarters, much closer in line with the PS5.) That's promising news for Sony, which has suffered from severe supply constraints that have made it difficult to procure a PS5 in most markets.
The strong console, software and PlayStation Plus subscription sales have resulted in Sony's best-ever year for revenue and profit, with Sony reporting 2.65 trillion yen ($24.6 billion) in sales and 342.2 billion yen ($3.14 billion) in total operating profit. Sony says the increase was primarily due to increased software and PS Plus sales compensating for "a loss resulting from strategic price points for PS5 hardware that were set lower than the manufacturing costs," which further highlights how console makers often make up for their hardware losses through game sales and services. Sony says 47.6 million people now subscribe to its PlayStation Plus platform, a nearly 15% increase year over year.
Climate TRACE's data show emissions at the facility-level.Image: Climate TRACE