PS5 Sales Climb To 32M, Which Is Millions Behind Where PS4 Was Over Same Period Of Time

Sony released its latest earnings report this week, and it showed that PlayStation 5 sales have climbed to more than 32 million units, up from 30 million through the end of December.

Sony sold 7.1 million PS5 consoles during the latest period, up significantly from the 3.9 million sold during the same period last year. The uptick in sales is no doubt attributed in part to the improved supply situation. Going forward, Sony said it should be "much easier" to get a PS5.

For comparison, the PS4 sold more than 37 million units over the same period of time since launch, so the PS5 is lagging pretty far behind that older console. But of course, that is likely explained in part by the stock supply situation that affected the PS5 in its earlier days.

As for game sales, Sony sold 86.5 million titles during the period, down from 92.7 million during the same three-month period last year. Of the 86.5 million games, Sony sold 20.8 million first-party titles across PS4 and PS5. 62% of games sold during the period were digital.

PlayStation Plus had 46.4 million members during the period, down from 48 million during the same quarter last year. Monthly active users, however, rose from 111 million to 112 million, Sony said. Of those users, about 30%--or 33.6 million--were on PS5, which shows how big PS4 continues to be. Additionally, Sony said about 30% of PS5's monthly active users never owned a PS4, which Sony said is a good result and shows that it is succeeding in bringing new people into the PlayStation ecosystem.

Sony also mentioned that players who moved up from PS4 to PS5 recorded "significantly higher" gameplay time, average spending, and PS Plus subscription rate. As such, Sony said it will "continue to focus on accelerating the transition of PS4 users to PS5" to help make more money.

The company aims to sell 19 million PS5 units during the current fiscal year, so it has 6.2 million more to go to reach that mark. Sony's fiscal year ends on March 31.

"By optimizing our operations, we are exerting every effort to sell as many units as possible to meet the strong demand," Sony said.

Finally, Sony said that total gameplay time across all PlayStation users during the period dropped by 3% year-over-year, though it's up 6% over the past quarter and up 14% comparing December to November. "We believe that user engagement is on a recovery trend due to the penetration of PS5 and the contribution of hit titles," Sony said.

Speaking of hit titles, Santa Monica Studio just announced that God of War Ragnarok reached 11 million copies sold, and it continues to be PlayStation's fastest-selling game of all time.