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PS4 Sales Hit 79 Million, Nearly Topping PS3

An updated look at Sony's business as of the end of March 2018.

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Sony has released its earnings report for the most recent quarter, which ended on March 31, 2018. This provides us with an updated look at the PlayStation business, which saw another 2.5 million PS4 units sold worldwide during the quarter. That brings lifetime sales of the console to approximately 79 million units, which means the system has now nearly topped the sales total for the PS3, which passed 80 million back in 2013.

Sales for Sony's Game & Network Services division increased 18% to 1,943.8 billion yen for the quarter. The company attributed this in large part to an increase in PS4 software sales, which were up to 52 million units from 50.6 million during the same period last year. That included a major uptick in digital sales, as 43% of games sold were digital, as compared with 37% the year prior. For the full year, 32% of full games were sold digitally.

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Now Playing: Most Anticipated Exclusive Games Coming To PS4 In 2018

Sony also made note of an increase in PlayStation Plus subscribers. As of March 31, it has 34.2 million members, up from 26.4 million a year earlier and 20.8 million the year prior. The company announced recently that it will stop offering free monthly PS3 and Vita games as part of the subscription beginning next year.

Image source: Sony IR
Image source: Sony IR

For the current fiscal year, which runs through the end of March 2019, Sony said it expects sales for the division to drop about 2%. That's due primarily to a decrease in PS4 sales, which isn't a major surprise given that we're coming up on the console's five-year anniversary. In other words, these earnings provide no indication of an imminent launch for the PS5.

For the full fiscal year, Sony overall saw sales and operating revenue increase 12% year-over-year to 8,554 billion yen. Game & Network Services for the full year also saw an increase to 1,943.8 billion yen, up from 1,649.8 billion yen during the year that ended on March 31, 2017.

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