The PlayStation 5 generation is officially Sony’s most profitable hardware generation to date, according to new data from the company.
It comes from the company’s gaming and networking services division Meeting and presentation slidesThe announcement today follows the company’s earnings report two weeks ago. In its presentation, Sony revealed that the PS5 generation has sold $106 billion since its launch, surpassing all previous consoles during the same period of its generation.
Let’s add some asterisks to this number. Initially, Sony reported total sales of the PS4 generation at $107 billion, up from $106 billion. But the PS4 generation, considered as a whole, spans from fiscal year 2013 to fiscal year 2019, and spans three years longer than the PS5 generation (which runs from fiscal year 2020 to fiscal year 2023). Four years into the PS4’s lifecycle, it’s still far behind the PS5, and the PS5 is on track to significantly surpass the total sales of the PS4 generation at some point this year.
It’s also worth noting that these dollar amounts are total sales across console generations and not sales of specific hardware or games. “PS5 Generation” includes not only the PS5, but everything the company does during that generation, including PS4 sales and game releases during that time. So take everything carefully.
But it should come as no surprise that the PS5 generation was very profitable for Sony. Despite all the asterisks mentioned above, the PS5 has sold 56 million units to date. While the PS4’s sales significantly outstrip each other (at last count: 117 million), the PS5 was more expensive than the PS4 at launch. Consistent spending on software throughout the lifecycle of both has contributed to Sony’s current generation of consoles only increasing dollar sales, even if console adoption has slowed somewhat; Sony reports that both PS4 and PS5 currently have 49 million monthly active consoles.
The presentation also points out that even with half the units sold, YTD spend on PS5 is significantly higher than YTD spend on PS4. Spending on DLC, services, and peripherals has increased, but spending on full game content has decreased slightly on the PS5 compared to the PS4.
All of this means that when in doubt, the PlayStation 5 performs well. Unit sales are a useful way to gauge gamer interest, but they don’t tell the whole story about how a company measures a console’s success. Given the persistent rumors that a PS5 Pro could be on the horizon, we can’t get away from Sony trying to capitalize on its current generation in other new, more expensive ways.
Rebecca Valentine is a senior reporter at IGN. Do you have a story tip? send it [email protected].
