The Sony PS5 sold more than the PS4, despite barely being available for purchase

Sony’s latest gaming console, the PlayStation 5, continues to be scarcely available around the world. Regions like India have received only a few thousand units and one round of sales that barely lasted a few seconds. However, despite the low stocks and general unavailability, Sony has officially confirmed that PS5 sales surpassed 7.8 million units globally ever since its launch in November 2020. What this means is that the new console has outsold the previous-gen PlayStation 4 sales during the entire financial year of 2020.

As per financial documents shared by Sony during its earnings call, a total of 5.7 million units of the PS4 were sold in the financial year. As for the PS5, Sony managed to sell 4.5 million units in the third quarter and 3.3 million units in the fourth quarter. This also makes the new console Sony’s second best-selling consumer electronics product during the course of FY20, right after its television division. Analysts also mention that the PlayStation 5 sold more units than the PlayStation 4 during the same launch timeframe, indicating robust demand for Sony’s latest console.

As for games and services on both the PS4 and PS5, Sony managed to sell a total of 338.9 million games during the fiscal year. Notably, about 17% or 58.4 million copies were from Sony’s first-party studios. Around 220 million or 65% were sold via digital download, which is higher than the 53% ratio from last year. During the next fiscal year, Sony forecasts that first-party PlayStation Studios titles will generate more revenues than the previous financial year. Basically, expectations are high from upcoming games like Horizon Forbidden West, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, God of War, etc.

Sony also recorded the highest number of PlayStation Plus subscribers in Q4 2020 with 47.6 million users, making it the best quarter for the service during FY19 and FY20. As for the monthly active users on the PlayStation Network, Sony posted 114 million users during Q1 and Q3 2020 while Q3 saw 108 million and Q4 saw 109 million users.

If you are interested in buying the PlayStation 5, make sure you check out our restock guide. You can also take a look at our first impressions of the PlayStation 5.

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