PlayStation 5 sales hit a peak with 20.8 million units sold in the financial year ending March 31, 2024, Sony has announced. That’s more than any other financial year since the console went on sale in November 2020.
However, PS5 narrowly missed Sony’s sales target of 21 million, itself revised down from its initial, ultra aggressive sales target of 25 million. PS5 sold 4.5 million units in the fourth quarter of the financial year, down from 6.3 million during the same quarter the prior year. Sony has now said it expects PS5 sales to decline during the console’s fourth year on sale to 18 million units.
Sony, which just announced Hideaki Nishino and Hermen Hulst as the new CEOs of Sony Interactive Entertainment, said it expects profits to rise 7% as the lower sales will mean smaller hardware losses, and it expects higher revenue from the PlayStation Plus subscription service. Countering this, however, is the expected negative impact of a decrease in sales of first-party titles. Sony has indicated no new games from its major franchises will be released during the current financial year, ruling out new titles in the Spider-Man and God of War franchises.
However, the number of monthly active users across PlayStation in March 2024 "remained high" at 118 million accounts, up 9% year-on-year. Sony said this was "thanks primarily to the growing penetration of PS5, as well as the success of Helldivers 2 and third-party free-to-play titles."
In February, Sony announced a significant round of layoffs affecting around 900 staff, or about 8% of its global PlayStation workforce. The layoffs affected a number of PlayStation studios, including Insomniac, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla, Firesprite, and, most significantly, PlayStation's London studio. Alongside the layoffs, a number of in-development games were canceled.
The PS5 launched November 2020 during the height of the pandemic, and has now sold 59.3 million. Sony is expected to launch a PS5 Pro model later in 2024.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
