PlayStation 5 Records Worse Results Than a Year Ago
Problems with the availability of components seem to significantly hamper Sony's efforts. For this reason, sales of the PlayStation 5 console in the first quarter of this year were significantly lower than a year ago.
Sony has released a report with latest results of the PlayStation division. The Japanese company has few reasons to be happy. Console sales and PS Plus subscriptions went down. Growth was recorded only in the gaming category.
Stock shortages are real
Here are the highlights from the report.
- 19.3 million PlayStation 5 units have been shipped since launch day.
- In the first quarter of this year, 2 million PS5s were sold, which is 1.3 million less than the same period in 2021.
- In the case of PlayStation 4, 117.2 million consoles have already hit the market, with only 100,000 of those sold in the first quarter of 2022. In the period from January 1 to March 31, 2021, it was one million, so there was a big drop here as well.
- PS Plus subscription is paid by 47.6 million people, which is 200 thousand less than a year ago.
- The only category where there was an increase was in PS4 and PS5 game sales combined, from 61.4 million to 70.5 million copies.
- Digital distribution accounted for 71% of games sold. A year ago, it was 79%.
The main reason for the worse results of the PlayStation 5 are problems with component availability. In February this year Sony reported that because of this it expects to sell fewer PS5 consoles in 2022 than in 2021.
PS5 lags behind the achievements of PS4
The magnitude of these problems is well illustrated when comparing PlayStation 5's performance with Sony's previous generation. PS4 sales exceeded 20 million units in just 13 months after its release. The PS5 only reached 19.3 million after almost 17 months after its market debut.
Nintendo does not have such problems
Much smaller problems of this kind are experienced by Nintendo, which also released its financial report for the first quarter of this year. During those three months, 4.11 million copies of the Nintendo Switch were sold, and a total of 107.65 million units of the console have already hit the market.
