Sony has reported its Q2 2024 financial results today, revealing that its PS5 console has now reached 65.5 million units sold. Hardware sales were slightly down year-over-year: whereas 3.8 million PlayStation 5 consoles were sold this past quarter, Q2 2023 saw 4.9 million PS5s sold.
However, this was more than offset by the increased sales elsewhere in the PlayStation department. For example, game software for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 consoles reached 77.7 million units sold this quarter, a 14.94% increase compared to Q2 2023’s 67.6 million units. According to Bloomberg, this was largely because of the outstanding success of Game Science’s action RPG Black Myth: Wukong, which is said to have sold around 20 million units (though that includes the PC version). Team Asobi’s Astro Bot also performed rather well, selling 1.5 million units as of November 3, which is around two months after its launch. Even network services were more profitable for Sony. The PlayStation Plus subscriber base remained at 116 million monthly active users (MAUs), just like in Q1 2024; it was at 107 million units in Q2 2023.
The highly positive Q2 2024 led Sony to revise its gaming forecast upward for the full fiscal year results. Sales have been upped by 4% compared to August’s estimate, mainly due to increased sales from third-party games, while PlayStation’s operating income has been revised upward by 11%, also thanks to an improvement in hardware profitability.
As a reminder, Sony’s fiscal year ends on March 31. As such, it will certainly benefit from big releases like Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Monster Hunter Wilds, both slated for February 2025. But it’s the next fiscal year that could be massive for PS5 game and hardware sales, with heavyweights like Borderlands 4, Death Stranding 2: On The Beach, DOOM: The Dark Ages, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Mafia: The Old Country, Ghost of Yōtei, and of course, Grand Theft Auto VI.
The latter, in particular, could help the console catch up to its predecessor (it’s currently trailing behind since the PS4 had sold 67.7 million units at the same point in its lifecycle). The impact of the newly released PS5 Pro console also has yet to be seen, with Sony hoping it will account for around 20% of the sales from now on, just like the PS4 Pro.
