Now that shortage issues are a thing of the past, the PlayStation 5 console is selling incredibly well, so much so that it has become the best-selling console in history for the first quarter of any fiscal year.
As confirmed today in Sony’s financial results, the Japanese company shipped a total of 6.3 million units in the first three months of 2023, 4.3 million units over the first quarter of the previous fiscal year, becoming the best-selling console for the first quarter of any previous fiscal year ever. Total shipments were confirmed to be at 38.4 million units worldwide.
Software, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to be doing as well. In the first three months of the year, PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 software sales amounted to a total of 68 million units, down 2.5 million units from the first quarter of the previous fiscal year. Of these, 9.5 million units were first-party games, five million less compared to the sales of the first quarter of last year. 70% of these sales were digital, a result that is pretty much in line with that of last year’s first quarter.
Once again, Sony proved that it’s only great games that drive console sales, and plenty of these great titles were released in the past few months, including first-party titles God of War Ragnarok and The Last of Us Part I. With some high-profile third-party releases coming in the future, such as Final Fantasy XVI and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, sales will only increase, giving the PlayStation 5 console the chance of becoming not only one of Sony’s best-selling systems but also one of the best selling gaming consoles ever.
Despite the PlayStation 5 console selling incredibly well, Sony doesn’t seem to be resting on its laurels, reportedly working on new hardware such as a Remote Play-focused handheld device called the Q-Lite, a new PS5 hardware revision compatible with a detachable disc drive and a PS5 Pro which should release sometime next year. As some of the new hardware is supposedly releasing before the end of the year, we are likely to learn more about how Sony will expand the PlayStation brand in the future very soon.
