PS5 reaches 59m units sold, Helldivers 2 sells 12m copies in 12 weeks!

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/ps5-hits-59m-as-helldivers-2-breaks-playstations-launch-sales-record/

Sony says its live service game hitHelldivers 2is nowPlayStation’s fastest-selling game launch ever, with sales “far exceeding expectations” at 12 million copies sold acrossPCand PS5 in its first 12 weeks.

The sales mean that the title, which was launched earlier this year, beat the 11 million copies in 10 weeks achieved by God of War Ragnarok last year, it said.

In the company’s financial results for the year ended March 31, 2024, Sony’s gaming division reported another record year in terms of revenue, despite PS5 hardware sales falling short of its original 12-month target by over 4 million units.

Sony shipped some 20.8 million PlayStation 5 consoles during the fiscal year, for a life-to-date total of 59.3 million. Its original, lofty, sales target for the year was 25 million units, but this was revised down to 21 million in February.

This means that PlayStation 5 is virtually in line with where PlayStation 4 was during the same period of its lifespan (60 million units shipped).

Sales increased 17% year-on-year to 4.26 trillion yen, which the company attributed to an increase in sales of non-first-party titles, including add-on content, and the impact of foreign exchange rates. During a webcall, the company also specifically highlighted the performance of Helldivers 2.

Sony reiterated it expects gaming sales to decrease in its current fiscal year, ending March 2025, due to an expected decrease in sales of hardware, now forecast at 18m units. The company previously confirmed it’s planning no “major existing franchise titles” during this 12-month period.

However, the company reiterated its plans to release Concord, the new online shooter IP from UK-based Firesprite, sometime this year.

Sony’s Network services revenue – which encompasses PS Plus and advertising revenue – increased again to its highest level since 2022’s service revamp at ¥545.5 billion (up from ¥464.6 billion last year).

PlayStation Network monthly active users (MAU) are up by 10 million year-on-year at 118 million (versus 108 million), but this represents a decline from last quarter’s 123 million. Sony says its MAU are the estimated total number of unique accounts that played games or used services on the PlayStation Network during the last month of the quarter.

Software sales (PS4 and PS5) increased 22.2 million year-over-year, to 286.4 million units. Digital software accounted for 70% of annual game sales, compared to 67% last year.

Tokyo-based industry consultant Dr Serkan Toto told VGC: “Overall, Sony’s financials look very solid. Looking at its PlayStation segment in particular, the operating profit margin as a critical indicator for the health of that business grew from around 6% to 9.7% quarter-to-quarter.

“On the hardware side, it seems the 20.8 million units PS5 sold last fiscal will mark the overall peak of the device. And Sony should send some champagne to Sweden: Without Helldivers II, the PlayStation numbers would have looked a lot worse last quarter.”

Ahead of the publication of its financial results, Sony Interactive Entertainmentnamed Hermen Hulst and Hideaki Nishino as the new joint CEOs of the PlayStation business, succeeding Jim Ryan from June 1, 2024.

In a webcall following Tuesday’s latest results, interim CEO Hiroki Totoki reiterated plans to ‘aggressively’ improve profit margins, partly with an enhanced focus on bringing its games to PC.

Earlier this year, the gaming division made what it called the “extremely hard decision” to reduce its overall headcount by “about 8% or about 900 people”, which included the closure of its long-running London studio.

PlayStation Studios boss Hulst said at the time that the platform holder was “reevaluating how we operate”, and that the layoffs had resulted in the cancellation of unnamed game projects.

In line with PS4 at this point, not bad. Hopefully they start announcing first party titles already so we can get the ball rolling!

Damn, down 30%.

59 million is a good number probably selling 3-1 over series x/s.

59 million is still strong numbers and Hell divers 2 really does need to go full multiplat, good for consumers and will cement it as a franchise type IP.

59/3=30? 😂

This is so damn beautiful

@kvallyx: 🤣 you just got rekt!

Yeah, all they need is stuff like GTA, CoD and EA Sports to sell well. Might even be enough with only EA Sports. Not very impressive considering how easy they have it.

Never understood the hardware sales comparison ever since all Xbox games where going to PC day one.

Xbox was never going to win and those with an ounce of brain power would know and accept that.

Lems don't understand hardware comparison the second the Xbox brand started sucking in 2013. They just don't get it, so please leave them be.

Sony is on a downward spiral as their financial targets, that were already lowered, are missed. The biggest game PS will have all year is a day and date PC title. They’re losing Square Enix, they’ve already let thousands of employees go earlier this year and shut studios down. No huge title ready for 2024. Steller Blade drama, HD2 drama, GoT drama, refunds, refunds, refunds. Sony is down bad this year and they’re hoping to suck you in with a Pro model but no “launch” showcase title for it.

Things are so bad they are gonna pay for TWO CEOs, rather than one, so they can babysit each other. Pee Wee Herman/Herman Munster is gonna do great things with the POWAH OF TEH PLAYSTATION!

That's a lot of Sea of Thieves and CoD customers right there. ;o

C'mon cows...

lolol :P

That's from MS? Link to official numbers from MS, thanks!

😂

😂

😂

@loudheadphones said:

@kvallyx said:

@robert_sparkes said:

59 million is a good number probably selling 3-1 over series x/s.

59/3=30? 😂

This is so damn beautiful

We love fake numbers here at System Wars! Thank you! 😊

@SolidGame_basic Are you concerned about PS sales being down 30%? I am 😟

I’ve been much more concerned about Xbox 😔

Yup. They hardly put anything out.

Why bother making great SP games if you can spend just 20% and make more money.

As a cow I am more concerned about PS ☹️

@nnoyinghusband: Savage

With xbox studio's being one of the biggest publishers on PS and PS No1 selling and biggest franchise xbox call of duty its time to accept the fact that every PS5 sold is highly likely to bring MS profits.

It sounds all doom and gloom when ratio's are used..especially when people forget to add how many more customers xbox has compared to PS.

@kvallyx: you got rid of your Xbox?

It's their second best Q4 in history in terms of console sales.

Q4:

Revenue is up YoY.

Profits more than doubled YoY.

MAU is up YoY.

Software sales are up YoY.

Massive live service hit with Helldivers 2.

It was a really good quarter (and amazing year). The only concern is that they have FY24 basically flat YoY. They don't return to record profits until FY25/26.

PS still up $1.55 Billion in revenue over Xbox. And yes, the PS yoy numbers are down big, but remember last Q4 was an all time record for PS.

@SolidGame_basic: get the ball rolling? This many years into the generation? You think they'll still announce new games and get them through development and release by generation end?

Nice try, Tom Warren. PS consoles still sold 20.8 million (out of a projected 21) for the fiscal year. Which is probably close to the totality of Xbox Series consoles on the market 🤣

How we all manage to read a financial report in different ways baffles me....

The truth lies in the shareholder response. Anyone want to guess why there was a selloff?? (Hint, only 2 parts of that release is relevant to shareholders)

^^^^

lol :P

This is hella funny considering the selloff wasn't based on their upcoming earnings but rather the fact they put in a $26B all-cash bid (with Apollo) for Paramount Pictures. Why? Because Sony doesn't have $26B in cash and, Sony Pictures is the smallest and least profitable of their five pillars.

No. I just don't turn it on anymore.

^Quite the dreamer lol.

This is why Sony is going multi platform. PlayStation console base isn’t growing and games becoming exponentially more costly to make. You can’t just keep raising prices on the consumer end.

12M copies of Helldivers 2 is impressive and they did it because....

With PS5 sales plummeting, I am not surprised.

We may not be selling games in big numbers on PS5, but let me tell you how many hours little jimmy have playing Fornite with all his middle school buddies. Sure, their parents can't afford to buy them a 1.5K Gaming PC so they have to play on the box dad and mom play 1-2 games a year on and use as a blueray player.

I first read it as 12m just on ps5.

Surely this will simply expedite the games coming to PC

Sony hasn't announced a single player exclusive since 2021 and has been pimping their exclusives to PC.

Meanwhile Playstation sales are expected to crash and game sales are down. Could it be because people are leaving your eco system and transitioning to PC? ( which is exactly what I said would happen).

They are going to go from arguably the most successful platform to a 3rd rate publisher. Way to go morons!

29% drop and expects to continue. So much for that winning formula.🙃

7.2 million on PC and 4.8 million on PS5 but Sony fannies believe Sony is not going to transition to day one on PC.😂

@silentchief: The market has evolved, the PS2 is still they’re best selling console so they haven’t grown their base at all in fact it’s smaller, and games have grown exponentially in cost to develop. Sony needs to evolve as well. Success isn’t defined by who most sells a singular device. Of course they’ll sell less PlayStations, that’s to be expected. However there’s a multitude of gamers that they can reach by providing their games on other platforms.

The reality that console market has barely grown since the PS2 era despite more people playing games than ever before has eluded many on this forums.

Evolve like Microsoft did and kill their brand? Genius idea 🤣🤣.

Do you realize Sony doesn't make the majority of its profits off first party game sales correct? The vast majority of their revenue comes from PSN subscriptions and the 30% cut they get off third party game sales. They will only continue to get that if they have a relevant platform and releasing all their exclusives on PC makes their platform completely irrelevant.

The other option was a Playstation storefront on PC but PC gamers have shown they will never support that ( look at the millions who bitched about creating a PSN account for Helldivers 2). So the moment people transition to PC( it's already happening) they will transition to Steam and then Sony can kiss their 3rd party cut good bye. We have literally seen this exact same thing happen with Xbox and it has failed miserably. The difference is Sony isn't a 3 trillion dollar company that can afford that type of failure. If they go day and date to PC they will be completely irrelevant in 5 years or less.

Except that's factually incorrect. It grew substantially in the PS3/360 and Wii era. The problem is much of the growth came from casuals who bought the Wii for the motion control gimmick and moved on. Regardless the overall console market was far larger in the PS4/ XBX One/ Switch era than it was in the PS2/Xbox/ GameCube era. Sony hasn't grown from the PS2 because Microsoft and especially Nintendo became far more competitive.

@silentchief: You’re still ignoring all the facts that gaming is so much more then a singular device. Games are exponentially more costly to develop. The PlayStation hasn’t grown since the PS2 but has only gotten smaller. A stagnant and/or shrinking user base isn’t going to keep increasing revenue from subscriptions and third party game sales.

Your ignoring the fact that the PS5 was on pace to outsell the PS2 and wasn't shrinking until this year. Their usebase became stagnant because they haven’t announced a single player exclusive in 3 years and their games are now available on other platforms.( I said after last year's abysmal showcase it would start effecting them and I was right)

If they kept high quality exclusives on their platform the platform would have continued to grow. People will go where the games are and if you put then on another platform they will gladly go there.

PlayStation's highest selling game this year (by far) is likely going to be a title that released Day and Date on PC; Helldivers 2..

as a fan of PlayStation PC, it's good to see that type of success.. 👍

Past 24 years

PS2/Xbox/Gamecube: 159/21/21 = 201 million

PS3/360/Wii: 87/85/101 = 273 million -> 36% (This is not substantial)

PS4/Xbox One/WiiU/Switch:117/58/13/ 76= 264 million -> -3% (decrease)

Source

Nintendo, prior to the Switch occupied two markets with two devices. 65.8 3DS devices at the end of 2017. During the Wii era with Gameboy, Nintendo sold a combine 219 million units which dropped to 78 million during the WiiU and then to 139 during the Switch era. Here is a visualization of revenue showing console stagnation

Feel free to share your "alternative" facts.🤷🏽‍♂️

@kvallyx said:

@loudheadphones said:

@kvallyx said:

@robert_sparkes said:

59 million is a good number probably selling 3-1 over series x/s.

59/3=30? 😂

This is so damn beautiful

We love fake numbers here at System Wars! Thank you! 😊

It isn't fake numbers. You know that very well that Xbox is selling like shit. Also, try to tell it is a fake number on Icon. What, no one likes you there, huh

More. Over 2x in revenue if you exclude Activision ( which is almost 2 bil. $)