
When the PS5 first launched in 2020, it had a lot of obstacles to overcome. The covid-19 pandemic obviously had a massive effect on just about everything, and Sony's early generation plans were clearly scuppered amidst the chaos. Component shortages meant that the PS5 was initially stuck in production limbo, and the limited product was further impacted by worldwide shipping issues. All of this resulted in some pretty severe stock setbacks, where, for a good 18 months or so of the PS5's life, actually finding and buying a current-gen console was shockingly difficult.
But even after all of those problems contributed to one of the most troubled PlayStation launches ever, PS5 sales have absolutely exploded in recent times. The system has really been pulling away in Europe — a region where PlayStation has always ruled the roost — and now in the US, it's showing some sure signs of market dominance.
In a new Games Industry report — backed by Circana (previously NPD) — it's revealed that the PS5 is currently trending 5% ahead of the PS4, when compared to this same point in its own life cycle. That may seem like a somewhat insignificant figure, but you need to remember that the PS4 was a record-breaking sales machine. For the PS5 to be punching above its predecessor — after being saddled with all of its aforementioned issues — Sony must be delighted.
Just for some additional context, the PS5 is trending a whopping 87% ahead of the PS3, which, of course, was a truly troubled console during its first couple of years on the market. Elsewhere in the industry, the Xbox Series X|S is actually down 10% on the Xbox One, but it's ahead of the Xbox 360 by 6%. Microsoft was, of course, hit with its own stock issues due to the pandemic, but the PS5 competitor is seemingly nowhere near Sony's system in terms of commercial momentum.
Given that the US has always been a major battleground between console manufacturers, the PS5's ongoing, seemingly intensifying success is impressive. Do you think it'll be able to maintain this upwards trajectory? Crunch some numbers in the comments section below.
[source gamesindustry.biz]
Comments 49
September is perfect month for a showcase, build hype for the holidays, with Spiderman 2, new system/price drop, and showcase could really drive up sales so they can reach the 25 million fy goal.
The PS2 is still the best selling console of all time. Which BTW is an incredible feat given how gaming was far less popular back then.
The PS4 is only fifth. Sounds a lot less impressive when you say it like that imo.
There is no war.
@LifeGirl i don't know if Sony can sell another console that reaches ps2 numbers. A lot of people want to say it was because it was a cheap dvd player at the time and thats true, but a lot of people forget that once sony reduced the price to 100 bucks it moved like 50 million additional units. I don't see Sony reducing any console to 100$ again
@LifeGirl The size of the console audience hasn't grown since the 90s too though. It was almost as popular back then as it is now.
So in that regard whether the record was broken then or now there's not much impact either way.
It's a little bigger, but not by much. We're just spending far more money than before.
The PS5 in unstoppable.
It feels good to be on the winning team. My sense of purpose in life has been fulfilled.
@Powerplay94 I'm thinking mid or late September, I don't think Sony is that concern about starfield hype when they have spiderman 2 this year thats going sale massively.
Well-deserved success. Hopefully, Sony maintains the momentum and staves off their main competitor's efforts to buy their way to dominance.
@Powerplay94 What Starfield hype? Do you hang around these echo chambers? If there was any hype, Xbox Series consoles wouldn't be behind Xbox One by 10 percent while Playstation 5 breaks record after record.
The Greatstation 5 is a killer of beasts that eat monsters for breakfast.
So much anti Playstation nonsense on the internet yet the real world paints a different picture. The usual recall that the internet isn't a real place. Love to see it.
To me its hardly surprising at all. While most of this year has been a little quite on their bigger triple A 1st party side, I do think the PS5 console is a very intriguing looking thing, a little awkward looking yes but a very interesting thing nonetheless and it genuinly grows on you, for me it did anyways. I held a PS5 DualSense in my hand for the very first time in early 2021 as a store were testing a PS5, a few months before getting my own and I remember instantly falling in love with the DualSense there and then making me even more excited to get my hands on my own PS5. There's the PS Plus subscription improvements last year with the Extra sub offering so many high quality games instantly when you sub. So many gamers will be wanting to play Spidey2, GoT2, Wolverine or hoping for TLoU part 3 and of course the many great 3rd party games
@JAMes-BroWWWn Series sales are 10% behind the one sales? Wow that's poor, even after spending £70+ Billion to bring in more games, have a budget priced console and have starfield around the corner, yet they still can't get more players.
Edit: Oh it's in the article 😅
@deathaxe That's a good point, a lot of people always bash Sony for not releasing their games on PC day one, but atleast they are giving people a reason to actually buy their consoles.
@KundaliniRising333 ps5 is a great console..plain and simple..it has the hardware ,the games, and everything between.
@LifeGirl PS2 sold so well because it was a lot of people bought it as their DVD player. This was around the DVDs came out and players with less features actually costed more than the PlayStation 2. Also selling an item and playing it 5 as the best of all time is a pretty big deal so considering that PlayStation 5 is trending better is a major feat.
Must admit, only reason on got the PS5 after the 2018 ruination was VR2. Don’t regret the decision either. Just hope Sony goes back to its previously liberal self, then I won’t have any issue with them dominating the top tier console space. Prefer that to companies just buying their way to the top by blocking even the hope of entire multiplatform franchises appearing on rival systems.
@InsaneWade yeah I agree. People want to remember the 360 days as things Microsoft did right but it was really about what Sony did wrong. If Sony didn't mess up at the beginning of the PS3 days that system could have reach 100 million as well.
@LifeGirl It took the PS2 quite a long time to get these numbers though.
@LifeGirl gaming was far less popular back then? It was booming. You had the ps1 which was still selling loads and the n64 was still selling loads. The dreamcast was selling a shed load too. Then you had the ps2 and the xbox launched both to stupid amounts of units selling. The ps5 was hard to get on launch but the ps2 was almost as hard to get at launch too. Gaming was as popular then as it is now..
Why, though, is what I'm wondering. Not taking the piss here, I've had my PS5 for a little over 2 years and I just don't really understand why the system is selling like it is. Granted, I'm more of a PC/Switch guy these days so the PS5 is just an exclusives machine for me, but there aren't even really enough of those to justify the price and I've barely used the thing since I got it. Honestly, if it weren't for Spidey 2 and MK1, I don't know that I could justify keeping it around.
@LifeGirl @Shepherd_Tallon @Northern_munkey @Flaming_Kaiser
The size of the gamer base has absolutely grown since the ps2 era. It's grown by over a billion since 2015 alone, the data to support this is readily available online. So, I'm not sure why this argument is being suggested that somehow the factors are equal when comparing ps2 to ps5.
Life Girl makes an absolutely valid point in suggesting how amazing it is that with the number of gamers today, that the PS2 is still the champ considering the factors WERE different at that time, not insignificant was the diversity of games and number of competitors at play, which have largely been widdled down to just one or two if you believe Nintendo still valid. So PS5 trending along the lines of a decades old console, when the gamerbase has grown by billions is in fact a less impressive feat.
PS2 is still the number to beat because despite the gamer base being smaller, it was a time of diversity and creativity in the space that has largely been stamped out in favor of iterative manifestations of corporate greed.
@GeneJacket exactly. well said and honest. I feel much the same as a day one adopter and pretty much solely a PS platform player. It has been largely underwhelming thus far despite shameful remasters, remakes, and safe iterative sequels on largely overused first party ips; with most of those being cross gen in favor of the largest profit returns. Not to say there haven't been a few gems but in all honesty most of those very few were third party multiplatform efforts.
@Powerplay94 LOL yeah no
@KundaliniRising333 of course its grown. But gaming was just as popular back then as it is now. Its only going to get more popular as well as there are more generations that are gamers now. This is probably the first time i can remember (in my family at least) where you have grand parents,fathers,mothers,sons etc that are all gamers. Thats like 4 decades of gaming going on lol. Its an amazing industry considering how it all pretty much started with pong. I'm glad i've been there from the start and have had the chance to play some of the defining games on most systems at some point in my 50 years on this planet.
@Northern_munkey cant argue with that!
i was simply stating that the numbers Ps@ did are absolutely more compelling considering the time, and lesser total gamers.
yet you are right in saying popularity of the medium was big back then as it is now, despite their being a bigger base now.
I still am not sure what console or generation i look most fondly on. I think PS1/2 (played a ton of Socom during those days), and maybe the original Nintendo way back was most awe inspiring perhaps due to being so young at the time.
@Americansamurai1 Yeah but the 360 was good though. They had a lot of games which pushed console sales. Imagine that! Games sell consoles. As soon as MS gets their studios fully integrated and firing on all cylinders like Sony and Nintendo I think your will see an uptick in console sales and game pass subscriptions. I think/hope they are finally starting to do that which is good for gaming. As a platform agnostic gamer and a privileged owner of all three consoles and a gaming PC, I want all three to do well. It is better for all and drives each competitor to do better which benefits all gamers.
@KundaliniRising333 i cant decide either. I've owned so many. I loved my atari 2600 when i was a nipper. In my teens i was lucky enough to have a spectrum 48k,128k and a c64 (i spent way too much time playing armalyte and retrograde and had a love/hate relationship with wizball.) I owned a master system but never really played it as i had just started my obsession with playing the bass guitar. I'd wager a bet that the megadrive and snes generation was when i really started gaming when i had a job that afforded me the means to actually buy a game when i wanted to. So yeah its been a blast.
Makes sense, the first party came out early in the lifecycle unlike PS4's 2016+ releases that most people remember not the 2013-2015 remaster period and what Killzone, Knack, Bloodborne people do remember but still very few people remember or that I can even list.
Xbox will have their time mid gen of now and coming. I assume. I mean them taking their time doesn't help compared to Sony's more strict direction of each one releasing around 1-3 every year and having the time to work out to balance things and DLC in-between.
I may have no interest in the first party games of PS4 2016+ (beside Dreams, Knack 2, Song of the Deep and Gravity Rush 2 or Astro, yeah I don't care about the big ones)/5 and the third party deals are more clear, the marketing is better the Xbox marketing is so Gen Z and Gamepass yeah I don't even have to question why western Xbox ads aren't convincing. Nothing against Gen Z marketing I just don't think it's really that convincing 'how they are going about it' or the audience they want to target. Sony is going after families or parents aka the ones buying the games and the big hard hitting titles.
Starfield more so appealing in that audience and many others on Xbox but yeah 'releasing' is a thing and 'good releases' that Bethesda pushing Redfall, playing Rage 1recently yeah id's worst game I think some modern design/not their direction of games can suck sometimes. But trends must be followed sometimes then the creative or just better marketing on what the games are hmmmmm or the timing they release. Or giving them time like Warner Bros did Avalanche to make Hogwarts Legacy, Avalanche had never made an open world yet besides the license they learnt how to work with it's world and certain elements better.
Beside the eh cinematic games Sony offers people want to buy them. I've got my space of Switch or retro PlayStation/Xbox to enjoy instead or third parties on PS4/Xbox One in the meantime. I experienced the Square 2022 releases I missed out on some were PS4/5 exclusive.
Jim Ryan playing the long game! 🤬 the Internet! lol
Please don’t delete this!
But seriously, this is why certain people are in certain positions. No one thought PS5 would be doing this well. Even with all it had to go up against in the beginning.
@InsaneWade yeah I got my PS3 at launch had a great time with resistance and watching Talladega nights lol. One very positive thing that came from the PS3 era was Sony really focusing on their 1st party
@cburg yeah I played a lot of my cousins 360 halo 3 and gears were a blast. Microsoft took a big bet with game pass and a lot of their acquisitions, curious to see what starfield does for their subscription numbers. Wonder how much starfield cost to develop
Well... we all know MS already admitted defeat in the present. It's the future of streaming they want.
Fingers crossed the public sticks to home consoles.
On the other hand, it's mysterious to me how MS is not losing tons of money on Xbox at present. All the acquisitions, the games development cost and the small install base will no doubt cause restructuring.
They really "need" activision blizzard for that live service money.
With that said, the ps5 sucess is the result of a good run of the ps4. I worry about the ps6 due to the upcoming wave of likely to fail live services coming up. That will lose them goodwill.
@Americansamurai1 I think it was reported about $200 million.
@cburg wow a lot of money, really curious to see if it increases membership numbers greatly, we see if they say anything when their quarter ends.
@Americansamurai1 That $200 million was just speculation, in reality it could be much higher than that.
The Ps5 is also back on sale in the UK so I'd imagine it's flying off the shelves again.
Will ps5 sell more then 118 million? Because that the number of ps4/pro sales numbers.
@Powerplay94 Doesn't people in India have more money then they did 20 years ago?
Hmmmmm I love how ppl think they know it all, let's take a look at the real non fan boy world
No hype for starfield at all
https://tech4gamers.com/xbox-series-x-1000-increase-sales-starfield/ someone better tell amazon they are wrong cause obvs ppl know better than them on THIER sales, no wonder amazon is a nearly broke company ....oh wait
Can someone email steam and tell them one of thier biggest top sellers isn't starfield cause there is no hype for it
They can't sell so many after spending 80 billion .....has the already gone through then??? No they haven't spent it yet
@Jamesblob you can be excited for sales of ps5 its is a great achievement ,a hell of a lot of sales ,I'm not taking anything away from ps5 sales at all.
Just pointing out just because stafield isn't on ps5 doesn't mean ppl aren't hyped just like ppl are hyped for spiderman, so the no one's excited for starfield is bs
@GeneJacket
Multiple factors. There's people such as myself who get every console, there are the hardcore PlayStation fans who get everything Sony releases and then when looking at the competition the Switch (where I've actually done most of my gaming since 2017 despite considering myself more of a PlayStation guy) is older and most people who want one already bought it and Xbox continues to be in a situation where for every good decision there seems to be two bad ones that make it not a compelling option for people on the fence. We'll see what happens once Nintendo's next system is out and the studios/publishers MS has purchased get more Xbox exclusives on the market but, for now, with the combo of all the big multiplatform releases and Sony's IP, the PS5 is the most compelling option that isn't a PC.
@Powerplay94 it's still better then what the Inflation is next door in Pakistan.
@KundaliniRising333 @GeneJacket
I can only assume some people bought one because it's the latest Playstation - a game of one-upmanship over their mates if you will.
For some, it'll be their first venture into 4k-ish gaming (even if all they play is FIFA) and for some, perhaps the PS4 was on its last legs?
Personally, I can't understand the demand but then again I still have a Pro with a Crucial MX500 SSD inside so for me, there's barely a jump.
Whereas the PS4 still has a fabulous UI, the PS5 depresses me every time I switch it on and it's not often I do - mainly due to the miserable UI and music for funerals moping about in the background.
@Shepherd_Tallon @LifeGirl Also, the PS2 arrived at a time when the DVD format was new and many opted for the console also to play movies on it at the time.
Irrespective of the naysayers, ps5 is clearly resonating with its target audience and they are voting with their wallets.
Ive owned just about every single machine that can play games since the industry started, including all current formats and a 3090 pc, and have to say ps5 is turning out to be one of my all time faves! Its currenly level with my hand held pc engine, which also brought me great joy. I have no issues seeing why its doing so well at all..
@Northern_munkey I agree overall but the N64 sold poorly, less than the NES and SNES, and it was outsold by the PS1 by more than 3 to 1 (it had a bit over 30 million lifetime sales and two thirds of that was in America alone, so its total sales across the planet outside of America was a mere 10 million-ish). The Dreamcast did even worse, not even managing to sell 10 million units worldwide in its whole lifespan.
You then say the Xbox launched to stupid amounts of units selling. Well that only sold 24 million worldwide, and only 8 million of those were outside America. So yeah, each of the aforementioned consoles sold very poorly by modern standards, especially certain ones outside of America. But I overall agree because the PS1 and 2 were insane successes, especially the latter. It was really just down to them, though, until the Wii and Switch.
@Matroska they still sold a lot of units though and contributed to the whole gaming industry. I never quoted exact sales figures and they still point to the fact that gaming was very popular and was becoming increasingly so. All eras of gaming are equally important to the progression of our favorite hobby.
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...