Sony’s sent out its customary pre-CES 2018 chest puffing press release, revealing that the PlayStation 4 sold almost six million units globally over the all-important holiday period. To be precise, the system sold 5.9 million units worldwide from the period spanning 20th November through 31st December. That’s actually a very small decrease year-over-year, when it sold 6.2 million units during the same period. It goes without saying that it’s still an extraordinary number, of course – and the company still has the $199 price drop in play.
Crucially, software sales during the same period increased year-over-year, from 50.4 million units to 55.9 million units. Total hardware sales as of 31st December now stand at 73.6 million units, while software sits at 645.0 million units. The console shifted roughly 20.2 million units in 2017 alone. It's also topped 31.5 million active PlayStation Plus subscribers.
“I would like to express my deepest gratitude to our community and our partners for helping us achieve such phenomenal milestones,” said incoming president John Kodera. “We promise our unwavering commitment to bring more amazing experiences to our fans, including exclusive games and innovative network services, as PS4 continues to flourish as the best place to play."
[source prnewswire.com]
Comments 22
I'm pretty sure that's the first time PS4 has broken 20 million in a single calendar year. They could have done more units if they kept it at $199 over Xmas, but I guess they were happy with where they were at.
EDIT: Great chart by Daniel Ahmad on Twitter showing PS4's sales so far:
I'd previously assumed 2016 was its peak year. Whoops!
No surprise really. It's at a mass market price and all they did was hit people with game after game in 2017. Should outsell PS3 globally some point this year if all goes right. Very impressive considering the talk around the time it came out was that home consoles were dead.
Hmmm ... so if there are 645 mil software units sold for 73.6 mil PS4s ...[does some quick math] ... the average PS4 owner has about 9 games on his console. Wow. I’m waaaaaay above average.
@Gamer83 home console.was never dead.like one of my favorite old school rap group public enemy say.don't believe the hype.word up son
@playstation1995
I didn't think so either, but that was the narrative back then.
Do you know that music "The King of Kings" by Motorhead?
All hail the King PS4.
if 199 happens it will murder xbots on sight
@PS_Nation word up son.fight the power
@PS_Nation What does Triple H have to do with PS4?
@MadAussieBloke yeah boy.flavor flav.911 is a joke just like the x box.word up son
Looks like everyone had a good holiday season
I buy dozens and dozens just to throw them away, they are that cheap now.
Seriously though, very very impressive. They have got to be targeting hitting 100 million + lifetime sales.
Man that pic never get old
2018 will be a huge year for games for PS4 let's just hope 2019 and beyond will be I'd hate to see some good games cancelled for PS5 because I'm not even ready to go to the next level yet. My PS4 backlog is huge I haven't even started horizon and Witcher 3 yet and I've still got so many games from ps+ I am thinking of deleting them to keep my focus on 1 game at a time because I keep wandering
I like the fact that most game sites are going with the 'PS4 sales have dropped this holiday' narrative, rather than Sony record best ever year for PS4 unit sales (up 2.7 million).
I would not be surprised to see them top the revised target of 79 million units shipped (up from 78 million) by end of march, given they almost sold 74 million units already.
Looking at the trend so far, so possibly 90million by March 2019?! Giddiness! So many blockbuster games, triple AAA exclusives, new tech, huge gamecasting community, freemium games like Fortnite and plenty of innovative indie games. For the gamers my Vita is getting plenty of game time too and new games keep coming out on that!
@Th3solution I cannot agree more, I have about 30 games in my library and I think that is pretty small number.
I've seen this image of Kaz so many times now I forget that it's Hulk Hogan.
@Gamer83 That was because so called industry analysts were banging that drum and games and tech sites took those words as gospel. It didn't help that the Wii U struggled but that was down to poor marketing, name and launch. Sales for consoles had slowed down due to a few reasons, one was the global financial crisis so new consoles were probably held back a couple of years, it didn't help the perception either when the Wii and 360 pretty much were none existent in the last couple of years with top exclusives. Crucially MS read the tealeafs wrong as well hence why they were pushing X1 as a machine that's for watching TV's and movies, that just happen to play games as well.
UTB
AMAZING Numbers
@Gamer83 The idea of "consoles being dead" was created and propelled by PC critics like TotalBiscuit, people with agendas, not by those with actual knowledge of the industry and certainly not by consumers of console systems. That's how I remember it.
The other major factor is that most of our gaming media - from IGN to GiantBomb - has been increasingly gearing towards PC/Steam gaming. So they superimposed their own preferences on the whole gaming market: 'if we like Steam better, so must everyone else'. That doesn't seem to be the case though ...
Just goes to show it doesn't matter how powerful your console is (looking at you Xbox One X) if you haven't got the games it doesn't matter.
@YummyHappyPills You're sooooo angry that PS4 is a success. =D
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