There’s been much doom and gloom about the PS5’s performance, but in the US at least, it’s selling faster than the PS4 at a higher price. Even more pertinently, it increased its advantage on the last-gen console in 2024.
Circana analyst Mat Piscatella reports that, through December 2024, lifetime sales of the PS5 were 7% higher than the PS4 launch aligned. The difference was at 6% through December 2023, so the new-gen system actually increased its advantage over the past 12 months.
It’s worth noting here that the PS5 costs significantly more than the PS4 did at this point in its lifecycle. Moreover, the new-gen console was massively supply constrained for years after its release.
For a comparison, through December 2024 in the US, the Xbox Series X|S trailed the Xbox One – itself considered a disappointment – by 18%. The difference was at 13% through December 2023, suggesting Microsoft’s new machine is quickly losing its lustre.
PS5 is generally keeping pace with the PS4 in Japan too, but it’s in the price sensitive Europe that it’s struggling to maintain pace. It’ll be interesting to see exactly how Sony intends to address this in 2025.
[source bsky.app]
Comments 64
Thats the aftermath of the success of the Playstation 4.
It had built so much momentum in its cycle, it carries it into the Playstation 5 era.
@JAMes-BroWWWn I really don't think casual players care about exclusives as much as you'd expect. Most people just want a convenient way to play Fortnite and Roblox with friends.
@breakneck plus most people buy whatever their friends or everyone else has.
Exclusives are important for a console to get enough hardcore players and become a success. After becoming a hit item, they don't matter much.
@naruball Yup especially in the age of blackhole games and even in that Playstation dropped a success in HD2 and all the gacha games. They also bombed with Concord but they buried that well with Astro Bot's stellar release.
@PorkChopExpress as Spencer explained during that infamous kinda funny interview, PlayStation won the most important generation (8th gen) as it solidified digital libraries and online profiles. The fact that the PlayStation 5 is selling as well as it is given covid, supply shortages, poor first party output etc. is a testament to that.
Why are we talking about higher price when adjusted by inflation the Ps4 was more or less in line with PS5? around $440 and PS5 can be either 399 or 499, almost at the middle point.
@graymamba The importance of first-party output is overstated. If you look back at the PS1, it was the strength of third-party support and perceived exclusives (many games people strongly associate with the PS1 either came out elsewhere, sometimes before PS like Tomb Raider, or came out elsewhere a bit later). Wipeout and GT are cool and all, but the things people were really hyped about back then were third-party, like Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, MGS, Final Fantasy, GTA etc.
The N64 had legendary first-party games like Mario Kart 64, Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, Goldeneye and Smash Bros and got absolutely crapped on by the PS1. It massively lacked third-party support, though. Same with the GC vs PS2. The consistent thing with PS is that almost all games are released on them, not great first-party support.
@Faruko Yeah, for some reason gamers and game journalists seem to always forget about inflation. Like when people say "I'm never paying £70 for a game, I remember in the early 90s I'd just pay £40," and you can't help but want to say "okay so that's actually £80 in 2024 £GBP you used to pay and you were okay with that but make it £10 cheaper and it's somehow too much?"
We continue to get games releasing on PS4, by the looks of it by the time the PS6 comes out, people might still be clinging to their PS4
@JAMes-BroWWWn But the gap increased again last year, so it’s sustained momentum and not just early momentum?
PS4 did have competition - not much admittedly - but at least it had some.
PS5 is the only choice for a next gen console now that Microsoft keep shooting themselves in the foot unless Switch 2 sells even faster than its predecessor.
If PS want to sell more in Europe, maybe they should reverse their £30 price hike that they loaded on everywhere apart from their home country of the USA?
I know maybe not a popular opinion.
Bit hell I had a PS4 and now PS5 for exclusives only really.
Also now third party because of PS5 Pro, best place to play them.
I’m no fifa or COD player.
@sanderson72 Yes, it’s the lack of competition for Sony in Europe, or at least „on the Continent“, what let them demand these prices. In the US, where Microsoft is a meaningful competitor and household incomes are higher (even considering high health costs), the prices for PS5 and therefore the PS5 itself seem to be more attractive.
I’m assuming that’s both series consoles being outsold by the Xbox one? That’s a huge fail
Good news for Sony
BUT
I wish this could translate to cheaper PS+ price and more classic PS1-PS2-PS3-PSP-Vita port or remaster. It would be awesome if Wild Arms 4, 5, Alter Code F, and XF got a port / remaster. Or Legend of Legaia 1 & 2, Alundra, Arc the Lad, etc...
@OldGamer999 every game I’ve played on my PRO is just better in every single way. Frame rates smooth as hell and bumps in res all over the shop. I’ve started Snowrunner and mate it’s gorgeous on PRO. And as for my other current game Raganrok, it looks like a damn PC game ! Loving PRO
@Mikey856 Of course, they are combined yes.
@Matroska ps1 had crash trilogy , CTR (better than mario kart 64) twisted metal, siphon filter , etc
the n64 also got outsold because of its dumb controller , cartridges & worse versions of multiplats because of limited space on cartridges compared to CDs. outside of mario kart , smash bros and goldeneye - was there any other reason people had a n64 for the most part & wasn’t it seen as a couch-co-op machine ?
i think people mostly point out sonys exclusive output because of how good they were rather than sheer quantity
@PorkChopExpress yup, I honestly think MS regret going all-in on Gamepass now as they’ve simply trained their core-consumer to not make purchases. Their bet was so huge though, that I don’t think it’s the kinda thing they could ever walk back… even when they needed to, hence making what must’ve seemed the blasphemous decision at the time to release games on their competitors platform instead.
@Mikey856 Proud owner of Pro here too, and yes I agree every game just slaps on the pro doesn't' it?, I replayed Stellar blade the other week on the new settings and it's night and day difference.
Another piece of evidence that shows how rubbish the MS strategy has been.
No one with any sense is going to buy an Xbox right now - the flood gates are seemingly about to open on the ports and if there are enough ports there may even be a PS gamepass tier down the line to access them all.
18% behind Xbox One is frightening. And PS are not having to do a thing to hoover up those customers.
@Matroska @Faruko Inflation is an awful argument for the price increases in games - and no one forgets about it because there are tonnes of people that parrot this argument.
The market for games has grown massively in the same time period, more consoles are sold and way more games are sold. Gaming is the biggest entertainment industry on the planet bar none. And prices have risen, they have just risen in ways that are less obvious than increasing the sticker price.
You hardly ever buy a complete game out the gate - DLC, season passes, microtransactions are all part of a full price game these days with many games now just giving you the entry level version for a game that has a 2 year road map to buy into.
It is often well clear of £100 to buy a 'full game' not to mention we now have the early access scams to throw on top of that.
With the move to disc based media the price of manufacturing has also fallen from the days of carts with a HD blu-ray costing pennies to make and then there has been a removal of content with no booklets/instructions included.
And this is before we go into digital distribution which maintains the highest of prices while having the lower overall cost as there is no manufacturing or distribution and no retailer takes a cut.
This is why for years companies in this industry have been able to announce record profits, year on year on year.
@Max_the_German @sanderson72 The PS5 did get a $50 price hike in the US it just came later after the one in Europe and was only for the Digital edition.
https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2023/10/11/ps5-price-increase-usa-october-2023/amp/
PS5 is actually selling well despite all the annoying crybabies online. VG Charts estimates it's at 71 million sold now which is good but they also have a history of underestimating Playstation sales.
I've seen another estimate from someone from Instalbase that thinks they are actually about 73 million already.
@nomither6
The N64 actually had a great games library, it was the lack of strong third party support that hampered it(due to the cartridge choice) and Sonys incredibly successful advertising campaigns that grew the video game market by a massive amount.
You missed out 2 of the greatest games ever made btw: Ocarina of time and Mario 64
The gap between Playstation and XBOX is now so big that it can't be bridged, no matter how much money Microsoft throws at the problem. Which is likely why they gave up and went multiplatform instead. Adapt or die.
I would guess its just about impossible for a new contender to enter the race with some brand new console at this point, as well. Software libraries are just too consolidated at this point.
@graymamba for Microsoft though, it was Gamepass or get out of the games industry altogether.
Nadella had no interest in spending a huge amount of capital and resource just to stay in an industry with a lot of competition and limited growth potential.
Now they've spend over a hundred billion, they'll probably stay in gaming if just to recover their investment, but if Nadella knew Gamepass wouldn't go anywhere, he'd have just axed the whole division
@get2sammyb yeah that’s really bad then. I’m expecting pretty much any Xbox title to come to the PS platform at this point then. Next generation are we thinking day and date release on PS? Will there be an Xbox platform to release on exclusively is what I’m saying
Honestly I think the doom and gloom is all a bit overdone. Yes first party single player games are slower than we’d like but even so first party has pumped out great games like Astro Bot, Returnal, God of War Ragnarok, Spider-man 2 & Miles Morales, Gran Turismo 7, Horizon Forbidden West etc. and topped it up with console exclusives like FF7 Rebirth, Stellar Blade, Black Myth Wukong.
But first party is always a tiny minority of the games we play, third party has also provided wonderful experiences like Baldurs Gate 3, Elden Ring, Metaphor Re:Fantasio, Alan Wake 2, Balatro, Sifu, A Plague Tale Requiem and many many more.
And that’s just on PS5! Frankly I can’t keep up with all the great releases. If that is a bad generation I’ll take many more “bad” generations.
@themightyant yeah I really can’t complain either and as many others have pointed out the second half of the console cycle is where it really gets into its stride release wise. You missed Demons souls btw 😁
@Mikey856 agreed second half is usually where it picks up.
Also I missed MANY games, it’s a short list only. Though I tried to avoid mentioning remakes or remasters to avoid people using that as a downside.
I'm tired that in the EU gadgets get handled as $ = € (+100€ oftentimes). Oh well, I prefer real health care over cheaper gadgets.
Does anyone else find this story a little confusing... what does "out-pacing" mean? Are they saying that PS5 has sold MORE units than PS4 at the same life-cycle point? What does "pace" mean. From what I can find - at June 2017 (under 4 years from release) the PS4 had sold through 60.3 million around this point in the PS4 life-cyle. Roughly four years into the PS5 - they have sold through about 65 million.... but.... I don't quite understand what is being said. Although this seems to be the "sell in" numbers to retailers - not the "sell through" numbers that represents sales to cusomers which was closer to 56m.
That doesn't qualify to me as "out-pacing"... unless the US is so much different than the rest of the world. Though the variety of numbers seems to indicate a lot of room for 'rubbery figures' depending on whether sell-through, or sell-in numbers are being reported; and compared.
If this is just talking about dollar sales - then there should be a roughly 32% increase since 2018 alone (just based on inflation alone)... but the dollar increase in the console price is only 25% (in the US)... which would still require MORE sales to match the inflation adjusted value of sales. Something doesn't add up.
Then again... the PS5 is much cheaper in the US... and likely to get even cheaper compared to everywhere else...
@Matroska what a post! I love when people think logically! Inflation comes into play with so many things but people never take it into consideration. Expect for when they’re talking about eggs for some reason… 🤔
@Mikey856 God Of War: Ragnarok is the most beautiful game I’ve ever seen on console! All real-time renders that have 0 sharps edges unless they’re supposed to. I’m currently shooting for the platinum and I’m taking longer than expected due to photo mode lol.
@ChrisDeku I would argue that Nintendo has always struggled with third party support with every generation (may change with tyhe Switch 2), but obviously their first part games is what we are most interested in.
I doubt my experience will shed light on the overall trend, but for what it's worth, I bought a PS5 a couple weeks ago for two reasons: I needed to replace my old Blu-ray player, and I decided it'd be easier and possibly cheaper (when factoring in the savings of not buying a separate Blu-ray player) than upgrading my gaming PC since most of the games I want there are also on PlayStation 5 or 4.
@Mikey856
I’m getting there with the Pro and seeing it in a lot better light now.
I think this year we should see better use of its tech definitely from Sony and most third parties.
Ghost 2 should really push the Pro, well I’m hoping so.
It would be interesting to get figures on the pro considering its high price. Personally I hope it’s selling well to increase the chances of more games supporting it.
The Sony monopoly is going to be great for us consumers... Hope people are going to be happy paying more from now on lol
@neillaw There is no monopoly. PlayStation has more competition than ever.
@get2sammyb please, do name the other consoles competing considering Xbox has now rather irrefutably failed according to figures in the article
@nomither6 “ outside of mario kart , smash bros and goldeneye - was there any other reason people had a n64 for the most part & wasn’t it seen as a couch-co-op machine ?”
Back in the day, those were basically “forever games” like Fortnight, and they were killer apps to boot. Don’t forget Mario 64. So those were very good reasons to own the console.
@MasterChiefWiggum majora mask and ocarina of time..
@OldGamer999 I thought you got mad and sold your PS5 Pro
@neillaw
PC, Steam Deck type devices, Switch. Maybe even include PS4.
@Shwing so PC has always been around, the others you mention are handheld which caters different customers, not to mention an entirely different spec level, the predecessor PS4 would have been even more relevant in the past and actually adds to the monopoly factor for Sony, so good mention!
I'm confused how there is more competition now when there is a distinct decrease in competition... Ultimately Playstation be it 4 or 5 or future does hold a monopoly now, so be prepared to pay more for your games in the future. We have already seen the price of the PS5 Pro and that's just the start
@johnedwin Absolutely. A healthy number of classic games on that console.
@neillaw
Yes PC has been around forever, but never as prevalent a gaming machine as it is now, and don't forget prior to this gen there were no PlayStation exclusives on it.
The switch is also a traditional plug into TV console. Things have changed over the years, and it's all about companies grabbing your eyeballs - That's the competition, your eyeballs for the limited time you have free.
@Frmknst This generation is only halfway and already has a great library of games.
Saying this gen has next to zero games is a real take.
Why do people on PC want so badly to see consoles dying?
@Frmknst Next to zero games? Homie, i think you need to check your eyes to the doctor like asap.
@Shrek_Realista It's their "master race" ego. They always see console gaming as inferior or for peasant thing.
@MasterChiefWiggum you’re right , so would you say that the ps1 was carried by its first party and multiplats or multiplats only ?
@Faruko by this time PS4 had a permanent price drop
This increase looks like Xbox players moving over to PlayStation. That’s terrible news for Microsoft to lose market share in their own territory.
@Medic_alert I agree with SOME of your post about inflation and profits but it's missing some key points for balance. Honestly I think it's a bit of one-sided. E.g.
Yes it's true Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have all recently published record profits, but that is to be expected because they have record investment. Record profits only tell a small part of the story, it is a number in isolation with no context.
To paraphrase. If you invested £100 and got £150 back your profit would be £50 but your profit margin would be 50%. Whereas if you invested £1,000 the next year and got back £1,200 your profit would be £200 which might be a record profit, but your profit margins would be much lower at 20%.
E.g. PlayStation's profit margin for the last few years has been around 6.8% which is low for most businesses and much lower than they were on average 5+ years ago, it was pretty concerning from a business standpoint. The last quarter they were slightly better (12.95%) but that was after 9 quarters in a row below 10% and 5 of those below 7%.
Have you considered if things are so good for publishers and platforms holders why are so many studios closing down and so many devs losing their jobs? It's not as simple as you are making it out to be.
@Matroska @Faruko I partly agree with you both about inflation. On the whole I think games and consoles have been remarkably inflation resistant compared to almost everything else.
BUT inflation doesn't tell the whole story. Purchasing power is a much more important metric than inflation for this sort of thing, and as @PorkChopExpress said salaries have not risen in line with inflation. To make this worse because the general cost of living has risen so much, most people have less disposable income and our purchasing power is much lower.
If consoles and games had gone up in line with inflation they almost certainly wouldn't sell as much at that cost, the broader market would reject it. Consoles and most current games finances only work at larger economies of scale.
Similar to @Medic_alert post you both make some good points, but I think you are missing a key bit of balance / nuance. It's far more complex than just inflation.
@themightyant hard disagree from me on that one.
The reason they are closing things down is simple, it makes financial sense to do so and will bring them more money.
There is no nuance needed in my view, profits go up and up, the companies choose to spend more and more on development and many a failed project because they want to keep chasing the almighty $ and when it doesn't work out those same companies shaft their workforce and pass the costs onto the consumer and all because line must go up forever and ever.
@Medic_alert I agree they are chasing more money, but so is virtually every business, that's not shocking in the slightest. Of course they want the line to go up, that's business. But more importantly Sony NEED the line to go up because their Game & Network Services profit margins have been so dire for the last two years. This is all published information.
You can literally put money in a fixed rate account and earn around 5%. If you are willing to take a little more risk you can make it 10%+. PlayStation's 6.8% return over the last few years is woeful for the amount of money they are investing annually, it's not the sign of a strong business at all.
Hence my point that focusing on their "record profits" in isolation while ignoring their profit margins only tells a tiny portion of the story and misses the most important part.
@OldGamer999 damn man the thought of Yotie really gives me the old fizz
@themightyant I agree it isn't surprising, it is also not sustainable. Big companies expect year on year growth regardless of whether they have actually earned it.
It might be 'business' but that's nothing to do with me. What i see are people getting fired for management errors and consumers being squeezed for every penny because no one in the games industry thought to be a little more conservative when the good times were rolling.
@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare interesting writeup. thanks for sharing. according to your sources, it appears that the ps4 was at 90m units sold as of january 2019, which is about 5 years after the launch of the ps4 (launched in november of 2013).
ps5 currently sits at 65m units sold after 4 years on the market. unless the ps5 sells an additional 25m units before november of 2025, then the ps5 is absolutely NOT outpacing the ps4.
if gta VI releases this year, there is a good possibility that the ps5 will match the ps4 in sales as it will get a massive boost. without gta VI, i don't think the ps5 has a chance at selling an additional 25m units in less than 10 months from now. total lifetime sales should be interesting to see, but as we all know, sales aren't everything. even if ps5 outsells the ps4, that doesn't mean it was the better console. far from it.
@nomither6 Well, remember certainly at the start, there WAS no real first party. Sony started snapping up devs soon after, of course (Psygnosis, etc.) But I’d have to say it was a combination. You had games like Gran Turismo, Crash Bandicoot, and so on, along with great third party games like Tomb Raider and really good fighting game ports (a big deal in the ‘90s) like Street Fighter and Tekken. I think PS1 was successful because it was marketed as a cool gaming platform, AND it was where devs wanted to be due to the voluminous, inexpensive CD format. Sorry for the long response, but I hope that it made sense!
@Porco actually thanks for the comment - because it forced me to go back to my original post (and have corrected some errors)...
In June 2017 (~43months post release), PS4 sold through 60million.
In April 2024 (~41 months post release), PS5 sold through 56million.
Comparing apples with almost apples... they are almost the same... and perhaps are selling more. However... when adjusted for inflation, they are definitely NOT actually making more revenue (though this admittedly depends also on the profit per unit). It does get complicated with the introduction of the slim... but that's a complicated story.
I adjusted my original comment, so cheers!
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...