PS5 Quietly Crosses 4 Million Units Milestone in Japan

I’d say around 110 million. The slow start to the gen hurt a little but it is catching fire now that the stock levels has increased. PS and Switch are both 100 million in their sleep at this point forward. They both would have to do something crazy to ruin that.

PlayStation is failing right now according to some people here and on X.

@HonestHick It will not maintain this pace - especially it's drought of games in 2024. 110 is really pushing it unless they do something big - which they arent doing right now besides price slashing.

And none of it exists in a vacuum. If you hit 110M it also depends what your competitor does.

Personally I think it lands at a cool 80-90. Unless something big shakes things up like a must have game or application or VR takes off or something.

@Cashews i mean that’s possible, but that would be a huge dip in sales. I plan to skip the slim and wait for the Pro. I will then sell or trade my base in for the Pro. Hard to tell where it ends up. But at the moment they are selling very well and when a GTA 6 hit’s i can only imagine console sales in general will really pick up. But after that i am not sure there is another game that can move huge units.

I'm confused. Did someone take the previous ~3,500,000 previous lifetime sales and add the current weeks ~50,000 and come up with 4,000,000 b/c those 2 numbers added together are ~3,550,000, about 450,000 short of 4mil.🤷

Would explain why the 4mil was quiet I guess?

3,495,327

• 53,211

______

3,548,538

Edit: ok I did some research and it does look like the PS5 models (plural) do reach 4mil in Japan if you add the disc models ~3,500,000 and the digital only models ~550,000. How I was supposed to figure that out from this article I'll never know.

PlayStation 5 – 46,774 (3,495,327)
PlayStation 5 Digital Edition – 6,437 (551,239)

Nice job Sony! Big wins all around in Japan for hardware sales right now.

Switch crossed the 30 million milestone

This is also the second week in a row where the Xbox Series X sold over 1000 units (1078 last report and 1658 this time). Are Japanese gamers prepping for Starfield or something?

@rjejr You aren't wrong! I've updated the article to avoid confusion. Sorry, and thanks for the assist; always preferred words to numbers for precisely this reason

So PS5 crossed the 4m mark in Japan faster than PS4, PS3 AND Vita. Hope this trend continues .
@Cashews FF7 Rebirth, Silent Hill 2, Rise of the Ronin, Stellar Blade, Lost Soul Aside and Wolverine and DS 2 are all supposedly launching next year .. That's a drought??
Total lifetime sales of PS5 will easily cross 120 million, no chance it tops out at 80-90 lmao.

@GamingFan4Lyf
‘This is also the second week in a row where the Xbox Series X sold over 1000 units‘

I’m more impressed with the PS4 selling almost(784) as much!!! Outmanned and outgunned, but still alive and kicking and going down swinging 👍🏻

I dont think it beats PS4 (though hope i'm wrong) due to stronger competition from Microsoft and the Switch successor likely coming next year which could impact momentum

@Cashews it's outselling PS4 worldwide with a far poorer game selection and a price rise. I think it'll walk 110m tbh. It's gonna put up 10 million between now and year end alone.

It's great to hear, but let's hope for some real next gen games for next year. What's happened to all these incredible Unreal 5 games we were promised with this amazing new engine. The Matrix demo is still one of the best things I have seen. Especially the chase sequence, more of that please!!

@StrawberryTurtle

Final Fantasy XVI dropped out of the top 10 in Japan. If Final Fantasy VII Part 2 also fails in sales in Japan, and Square Enix has to wonder if future Final Fantasy games are worth it to be exclusive to PlayStation.

@4kgk2

PlayStation 5 games sell very poorly in Japan, eg Final Fantasy XVI.

@Total_Weirdo

Handheld gaming devices could easily replace PlayStation and Xbox

@StrawberryTurtle

PlayStation exclusives are not as popular as Nintendo exclusives because PlayStation players mostly buy third-party games

I like my PS5 and Xbox but I don't love them. There are very few games this gen that have truly impressed me. The number of consoles sold is something for Sony and Microsoft to worry about. I had more fun with my Dreamcast and Wii U and their sales numbers were terrible.

Nice to see. I own all the machines, but as of right now its the ps5 that has my heart. Games like Horizon, Rangorok, Returnal and Ratchet have created lasting memories for me that I will always associate with the machine.
I think it could break 120 million easily. Its breaking sales records now, even though Sony are keeping details on their upcoming first parties close to their chest. With Spiderman 2 guarenteed to drive strong sales this xmas and no doubt some strong Sony first parties releasing next year, its clear this momentum is not going anywhere, despite those prophets of doom who are forever proved wrong.

The PS5 will be $449 at US retailers starting this coming Sunday.

Japan will be the only big region left without any temporary price cut.

I'm going to speculate slightly below the PS4, perhaps 110 million.

Reasons 1) Xbox acquisitions are going to kick in in a big way, slowing current growth. It's hard to underestimate how big Elder Scrolls games are to people. If Starfield is close to as big, it's the kind of game that will attract people who only buy consoles for one or two games

2) The Switch 2 will come out in a few years, and put more pressure on PS5 sales, especially if it can achieve PS4 level graphics on a handheld.

3) The PS5 is only a small step up over the PS4. I don't regret getting one, but it's been a less satisfying purchase than the PS4 was

4) With the steam deck, PC games are slowly becoming more accessible to a wide audience

All of that only adds up to a small dip, but I still think it will be a dip. A lot depends on Bethesda actually getting things right and Microsoft sticking to a strategy - two things which are always a risk

@Shepherd_Tallon Exactly this mate, we often see these things alike I know! Maybe I'm just easily pleased, but the industry has never excited me more than it does now, and I was there at the very beginning (I was 14 when Space Invaders launched in Arcades).
I never imagined that we would see games worlds as involving as Horizon or Hogwarts, and smaller firms can now explore true creativity as there are so many other funding models than simply being tied to a big publisher. I still think we are in a golden time for gaming and i love it

Playstation 5 will easily hit the 100 million mark. 120 million to 130 million in its lifetime.
I feel like Playstation has never been bigger than now. And we haven't even had an update of Sonys first party studios yet.

I think ps5 will sell 100 million+ ,pandemic etc etc ,and it's selling like hot cakes ,I'm not at all surprised I'm very impressed with it and we ain't seen nothing yet of what its truly capable of as always with consoles early on in their cycle ,yes the industry has issues but still a fantastic time though for gaming and playstation brand has got better and better overall

@Shepherd_Tallon
"Or how can FF XVI's sales numbers be a failure but other AAA multiplatform games selling similar amounts are a success?"

it is simple really - SE's brand is built on FF and it is a clear decline. If Shin Megami Tensei had sold 3M copies in a few weeks they'd be going bananas - but this is FF. FF, in the X era, was an evergreen that never left the top ten. It was like Mario Cart, God of War, Minecraft, GTA. Now it comes and goes like other common games.

It is a failure in that sense. The brand continues to erode and every quarterly report SE tells investors every game they make doesn't meet expectations. NEO: TWEWY, Forspoken, etc forever.

And they are really fun to dunk on.

I think somewhere around 105m and 115m all told.

Although I think PS4 is around 117m so it would be nice to see PS5 top PS4 sales. I'm sure Sony would be happy around that ballpark regardless.

I suppose it all depends on the support and quality of games over the next few years though.

We are definitely entering the peak years for console sales now for a console generation.

@StrawberryTurtle Nintendo Life prints Japanese sales numbers every week. Push doesn't because it paints a very poor light on the Playstation.

@StrawberryTurtle they are fun to dunk on because 1) they are a faint shadow of their former talent 2) NFTs 3) survives just through remakes and re-releases 4) people get more upset about SE than any other company.

I realized just how bad they were after playing NEO on the switch. I looked at their landscape, their old games and realized just how bad they are now.

@StrawberryTurtle PS5 is selling better than PS4 in Japan but the software sales have been awful in comparison to PS4 and it leads you to wonder just how many consoles are actually staying in Japan. The physical : digital ratio can't be that big, especially in a region like Japan where physical sales are still very strong

If the slim is small enough the PS5 will do 150 million without breaking a sweat. No serious competition for it this generation which is a huge help when it comes to sales numbers.

@Sam_ATLUS We've conducted several multi thousand vote polls on disc vs digital ownership here in Australia and the ratio is 10:1 in favour of the disc consoles. It's quite rare to hear of anyone running the digital console and most of those people got the digital because it's all they could get during the lean times.

It's really hard to put a number on it at this point but 100+ surely, and Square will probably continue to do well next year with Rebirth and Kingdom Hearts.

@StrawberryTurtle

Final Fantasy XVI dropped out of the top 10 in Japan last week, and was expected to stay in the top 10, i.e. ranked 16th last week. The Japanese would rather buy a games for a Nintendo console than a PlayStation. Final Fantasy XVI is too Western, and the Japanese don't like that at all.

https://www.gematsu.com/2023/08/famitsu-sales-7-24-23-7-30-23

N.i.c.e. good to know the ps5 is selling good in japan.the more it sells the more the game there.word up son

@StrawberryTurtle

If Sony wants to threaten Nintendo in Japan, they need to make a handheld console.

@Sam_ATLUS

PlayStation players, as well as Xbox players, clearly prefer to buy digital games rather than physical ones. And while with Nintendo it is better to buy a physical game because the physical game does not require installation

@StrawberryTurtle I don't know - ask Pushsquare why they don't print numbers. It makes the PS look bad because the entire top 10 software sales is the switch. Week in - week out. It isn't doing well.

@Dark_Knight No they need to support quirky, fun games the Japanese people enjoy. Japan buys plenty of home consoles and pcs. The whole narrative of "they only like mobile" is observably stupid. The Japanese support the PS for decades. Sony is their homeboy after all.

Sony abandoned the East in favor of Western money. Everyone knows this including the Japanese.

@Sekijo thank you - dunking on SE is fun. It bothers them too. which is good because they need to understand just how bad they are - how far astray they have gone. Maybe they can find some creativity in their quest for money and/or relevance.

https://kotaku.com/ff16-naoki-yoshida-troll-toxic-gamers-negative-comments-1850678166

@Cashews

Mobile games are far more popular than PlayStation games in Japan

@Dark_Knight yes. everything is more popular than playstation games in japan. That was my point. It is a shame Sony is the home team and some of the best, funniest, quirkiest games ever made came during the PS2 era.

No PS no Katamari - which would be a crime against the cosmos.

@StrawberryTurtle wut. Pikmin 4 sold more copies in one week than FF sold in 5 weeks.

That is a problem for Square Enix.

@StrawberryTurtle

Although the PlayStation 5 as a console is selling well in Japan, PS5 games are selling very poorly in Japan. Sony will have to do something about software sales in Japan.

@StrawberryTurtle

It is always better to buy a physical game on a Nintendo console because they do not require installation unlike digital games.

@Cashews It's stupid to compare Pikman when there's 30 million switches and only 4 million PS5's. FF16 is also rated (M) so that decreases it's potential player pool as well.

@Cashews you do realise that one country (Japan) is not the whole picture of success for any game sold or any console sold, its a slice of the bigger picture. Yh sure the Switch is 2nd to none in overall sales worldwide when its been availible on the market far longer than PS5 or Series and even the Switch today in 2023 is still doing incredible numbers. Its worth pointing out PS5 is dominating in America and the whole of Europe with Japan being the only one where the Switch has outsold the PS5 currently or did this escape your narrative somehow or simply didn't know?

Here is the SE quarterly in a fairly easy to read format - which coincidentally released today for everyone.

https://www.installbaseforum.com/forums/threads/square-enix-q1-fy2024-3-financial-results-net-sales-14-4-oi-78-5.1850/

wasit show? Sales, up YOY because of FFXVI - but here is the fun line: Operating income down 80%.

That is on their biggest release - Final Fantasy. SE takes the development cost right after they release games. So they absorb all the cost this first quarter after FF dropped. Obviously it cost an insane amount to make. But they've lost the release steam. It might have barely broke even. It doesn't appear it even did that at first glance. Problem. It is the game the entire company banks on and it took many years to make. Now what?

tl;dr - like I said so many times. Square Enix is in serious trouble and you can play pretend with whatever narrative you desire, or whatever marketing fluff they push out to the blogs - the only one that matters is the financial report.

@Sekijo lol are you going to ignore the quarter? the quarter is a story? I love it!

@MrMagic it is stupid to compare a niche game, that has never sold well for Nintendo, to Square's biggest release - that the entire corporation clings to?

Do you think shareholders, whom are the people who actually own Square Enix, really care that the PS5 has a smaller install base than the Switch? They don't. They care about the P/L column. Which apparently, is very VERY poor.

@Sekijo here is the problem with that statement. We aren't talking about Capcom. For weeks now I've accepted your (everyone not you) statement that FF is a huge hit and my statements to the contrary. As I've said all along - wait for the Q1 report. here it is.

So now that I am proven right, once again - as always, you want to talk about Capcom's past? How does Capcom's past and SE's failing help FFXVI today? Are they doing what Capcom did? Are people responding? The article you posted was showing YOY declines after MH. This is the Q1 that INCLUDES Final Fantasy 16 - the month it released.

Kinda funny the Switch isn't even powerful enough to run FF16. Not dunking on the Switch just stating an obvious fact. Is this ironic

@Beerheadgamer82 "Is this ironic"

No, that isn't irony.

Maybe Square Enix will realize putting their flagship on the powerful console was a mistake - both from a cost perspective as well as a numbers one. Perhaps they will realize that fidelity isn't as important as sheer numbers and a rabid fanbase waiting for them to return to form. Doubtful.

@Sekijo but the Capcom report was a year after the release of their enormous hit - MH Rise. The article is clear in that they were down YOY because they didn't have that mega release in that quarter.

But THIS ONE does have that flagship included. That is the rub; the difference. This isn't a random bad report this is the report the entire company counts on. It is this quarterly report.

You can like their game - more power to you. I just like to separate fact from fiction - in the case of SE - success or failure.

Sony could have sold more PS4 given they keep supporting it until this year. They could have sold at a discounted price like under 200.

@Cashews implying that SquareEnix made a mistake Putting FFXVI on PS(and eventually Xbox) instead of the Switch is just not right.

Here some facts:

Switch has sold 1.088b units of software, and about 84% were first party. That’s less than 200m units of third party software.

The PS4 sold 1.419b units of software up to September 2020, and PS4+PS5 combined is around 2.2b units of software up to March 2023. That is at about 85% third party software, so almost 2 Billion units of third party software.

The Switch is not good at selling third party games outside of very few exceptions, generally huge franchises that are Japanese centric games, and especially if they have a history of being on portable systems and Nintendo systems.

One game that meets all 3 criteria is Monster Hunter Rise, which sold 13.2m. Monster Hunter World however sold 22.7M units. Rise sold better in Japan but terribly by comparison in the west. On PC Rise sold about 1/3 of World, and on the PS and Xbox ports sold basically nothing. This is because the perception is that it’s a Switch game, and therefore it’s a lower quality product and is much less desirable to the broad market base of those other platforms.

Remember that Monster Hunters most successful games previously had all been on handheld and most on the DS and 3DS.

If the Switch can’t sell a MH game then it can never sell a FF game. A game that has always pushed technological barriers and been on home consoles.

@Cashews meant it as irony. Always thought of ironic and irony were same, get them mixed up. Still made me giggle a little when thought about FF16 not being capable on Switch.

Or maybe Square Enix only want their latest and greatest game to be running on the latest piece of console tech which is obvioisly something Nintendo don't simply offer at the moment and haven't done for quite a while

@Cashews Previous entries being niche still doesn't make it a good comparison, especially compared to things like install base, age rating and price, it was $30 cheaper than ff16 and they aren't even the same genre.

@ChrisDeku I don't get it. Are you saying Rise wasn't a success because World was a success? World is HUGE - it is Capcom's best seller of all time. Rise is HUGE. It's is like their number 3. Lol, it came out 2 years later!

...

I really don't get what you are trying to say at all.

@MrMagic WHAT? Nothing in your paragraph is 1) correct or 2) makes any sense.

what the heck is $30 cheaper? can nothing be compared to FF unless it is exactly like final fantasy? good christ almighty it is like a different planet with you fellows.

@Cashews What's hard to understand? It shows the relative selling strength of the the lead formats. The game developed on PS4(xbox)sold much better than the product that was developed on the Switch.

So why would Final Fantasy sell better as a switch game when Monster Hunter couldn't?

@ChrisDeku I guess I get it now. Not that Rise wasn't a success but it could have been bigger. That could always be.

I dont know if 16 could have been a bigger success on the switch. It would for sure be a different game. That's on them to figure out - which they will be pressed to do and soon. Triangle Strategy ain't gunna cut it.

As for PS5 sales it will likely be 130-150m based primarily on brand strength and sales momentum. There is a lot of scope for price reductions in its predicted 8 year life cycle too.

Sony projects 25m shipped units this Financial Year, that would be 63.4m shipped by March 2024, while entering it's peak years and being 4.5 years away from the predicted 2028 release date for PS6.

Anyone who think it will sell under 90m is being incredibly disingenuous.

@Cashews Pikman 4 was roughly $30 cheaper at launch in Japan and the rest is self explanatory.

@MrMagic it's that much a difference? How many yen does FF cost there? what a rip! that kind of gets my goat....

@Khayl OK now that I can read. 👍

In fairness to you it did make sense when I clicked on the linked to article, so thanks for the link, but I just couldn't make the words work. This is why I like numbers and I don't play Scrabble or Boogle w/ my wife, my brain sees everything mathematical, words are my Achilles heel. 😂

¥9,900 which at the time was apparently roughly $73, well according to this anyway - https://www.siliconera.com/final-fantasy-xvi-japanese-collectors-edition-unveiled/ and I remembered reading that Pikman was ¥6,250 for pre-orders and launch day because of a discount Nintendo gave because they weren't confident with sales because of the previous entries, it also said that it converted to $43 but I just checked myself and the standard Pikman price is ¥6,500 so there's only a $25 difference.

@rjejr I can relate, never been able to beat my own better half at Scrabble. Push Square should have really hired her haha

@Cashews Drought in 2024? FF7 Rebirth and Rise of Ronin coming in Q1. Concord confirmed and Wolverine from 1st party. Damn, severe drought indeed.

@CrackmanNL sometimes I can't tell if y'all are serious or not.

@ChrisDeku

Monster Hunter is very popular in Japan

@Cashews

If Sony doesn't do something about software sales in Japan, then PlayStation doesn't matter at all in Japan

@MrMagic

I hope that Kingdom Hearts IV will be released for all consoles and PC