PS5 Has Shipped 17.3 Million Units; PlayStation Sales Dropped & Profit Grew Year-on-Year

Today Sony announced its financial results for the third quarter of the fiscal year 2021, which ended on December 31, including an update on PS5 and PS4 shipments.

3.9 million PS5 and 200,000 PS4 units were purchased by retailers worldwide during the quarter, which means that the grand total for PS4 as of September 30 is at 116.9 million units shipped. On the other hand, PS5 has shipped 17.3 million units in its lifetime.

In the tables below, you can check out the overview of the performance of the Game & Network Services business (which includes both PlayStation and PlayStation Network), with all the relevant figures including software sales and more.

We learn that sales for the PlayStation business dropped by 8% year-on-year due to lower sales of hardware, peripherals, and games, both first and third-party.

Operating income grew by 12.1 billion yen year-on-year due to lower expenses and an improvement in PS5 hardware profitability, partly offset by a decrease in sales of first and third-party games, on top of PS4 consoles and peripherals.

It’s worth mentioning that the quarterly results announced today are compared year-on-year with the PS5’s launch quarter, so it’s not completely surprising that sales have dropped. As a matter of fact, this was still the second-best quarter in the PlayStation business’ history for revenue and the best for operating income during the Holiday season (Q3).

As a result, Sony is dropping the full Game & Network Services fiscal year forecast for sales by 70 billion yen, while increasing the forecast for operating income by 12.1 billion yen.

Additional documentation about the gaming business’ performance reveals that the grand total of PlayStation Plus subscribers was at 48 million as of December 21. On the other hand, PlayStation Network counted 111 million monthly active users.

Speaking of Sony as a whole, all financial numbers are in the black, showing significant improvement year-on-year.

If you’d like to compare, you can read our dedicated article about the previous financial results announced in October.

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