What just happened? High demand for a product can mean disappointment for consumers, but it's good news for the companies that make them. Sony PlayStation, for example, just had its best-ever financial year, and it revealed that the PS5 is selling at a faster rate than the PS4.
In its latest earnings report, Sony announced that 7.8 million PS5 consoles sold as of the end of March: 4.5 million in 2020 (it was released on November 12, 2020), and 3.3 million in the first three months of 2021. The drop in sales was expected as Sony will have increased production and stockpiled the consoles (not enough of them, obviously) before launch.
The figures mean the PS5 is outselling its predecessor. The PS4, which launched on November 15, 2013, sold 7.6 million units by March 31, 2014.
Image via Daniel Ahmad
Back in December, the NPD Group said the PS5 broke the record for the best unit and dollar sales in a console's launch month in the history of the US.
It seems lack of PS5 availability and price reductions on the PS4 encouraged people to keep buying Sony's last-gen machine, though its sales figures are falling. A million more PS4 consoles were sold in the last quarter. That's down 28.6 percent YoY, but it does bring the lifetime sales to 115.9 million, cementing its position as the fourth best-selling console of all time.
The company also announced that PlayStation Plus subscribers have now reached 47.6 million, up 14.7 percent YoY.
The impressive figures mean Sony's Game & Network Services segment, which includes its PlayStation business, broke revenue ($25.03 billion) and operating profit ($3.22 billion) records for the 2020 financial year.
Sony's success has been mirrored by AMD. The company just had a record quarter despite the availability issues surrounding its graphics cards and CPUs.