PS5 Just Did Something No Console Ever Has In History

Sony's latest earnings report has arrived, and in it are new sales numbers for the PlayStation 5. In short, the console is performing exceptionally well. The system shipped another 6.3 million units during the January-March period to push the PS5's total to 38.4 million to date.

According to reports, that's the most consoles than any company has ever shipped in a January-March quarter, beating all figures from past PlayStation consoles, as well as Xbox and Nintendo. As Piers Harding-Rolls of Ampere Analysis suggests, though, there is key difference between systems shipped and systems sold. Regardless, it's a huge result. PlayStation 5 reached its 19 million sales target for the full fiscal year, ending with 19.1 million shipped during the fiscal year.

PS5 consoles are flying off shelves, as the PS5 shipped 11.5 million units during the previous fiscal year. That's an increase of 7.6 million units. Sony said the uptick in shipments was driven by the basic fact that PS5 are now back in stock. "We are now able to deliver PS5 to customers without waiting almost all over the world," Sony management said.

Not only are PS5 shipments surging, the number of monthly active users on PlayStation jumped by 2 million to 108 million. PS Plus membership numbers, however, stayed flat at 47.4 million year-over-year. Additionally, total PlayStation game sales for the full fiscal year amounted to 264.2 million, down some 30 million units year-over-year. First-party game sales, however, ended the fiscal year at 43.5 million, up from 43.9 million. 67% of PlayStation games sold during the fiscal year were digital.

Sony is forecasting that PS5 sales continue to grow. For the current fiscal year, which ends March 31, 2024, Sony plans to sell 25 million PS5 consoles, up from the 19.1 million it sold during FY2022.

Something that should help improve PS5 numbers even further is the upcoming launch of Marvel's Spider-Man 2. Additionally, Sony management said it is working on new IP, bringing more games to PC, and bulking up its live-service game development.