PS5 Is Closing In On 100 Million Sales, Despite Getting More Expensive

During a briefing on its latest financial results, Sony revealed it sold 2.6 million PS5 consoles in its last quarter, which ended on September 30. This brings lifetime PS5 sales to 97.9 million, just months before the console enters its sixth year on the market. By comparison, the PS4 had shipped 103.0 million units at the same point in its lifecycle, but Sony's gaming ecosystem is performing much better thanks to higher digital revenue and a massive active user base.

This comes at a time when the PS5 has only gotten more expensive since launch, thanks to the global components shortage that has seen memory prices surge. Sony says it has been in discussions with manufacturers to secure enough memory for the next fiscal year and expects its hardware sales to remain profitable into the next year. The company has raised its forecast, as it expects sales of first- and third-party games--like GTA 6--to increase.

GTA 6 is projected to have sold almost 8 million copies ahead of its November 19 launch, and PS5 sales are said to be dominating by a wide margin compared with Xbox Series X|S. Sony also keeps 30% of the revenue from the game through platform fees, so GTA 6's early success will only improve PlayStation's fortunes.

With manufacturing adjustments that make the PS5 cheaper to produce and monetization of its monthly active users--which peaked at 127 million in September--business looks solid for Sony's game division.

Sony also touched on plans for its next PlayStation console, saying it's making "solid progress" on development and will announce it at an "appropriate time" in the future.