Sony revealed it has sold 50 million PS5 units to users worldwide in just 161 weeks after its initial release in November 2020.
This accomplishment puts the PS5 at a similar stage in its life cycle as its predecessor. The current-gen console sales lie barely one week behind the sales trajectory of the PS4. This shows a stark contrast to the situation in July 2023, when the PS5 achieved the 40 million sales barrier and was two months behind the PS4 lifetime sales trajectory.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Release Boosted PS5 Sales
In an official SIE blog, CEO Jim Ryan announced this news and thanked the global PlayStation community for its steadfast support. He emphasized credited this achievement to the engaging experiences created by PlayStation Studios developers and their partners. He also highlighted that the PS5’s strong holiday sales this year are backed by a full supply, in contrast to the stock issues that the device had during its first two years of release.
November 2023 proved to be the greatest month for SIE in terms of PS5 sales, with the sales numbers rising due to the launch of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 on October 20 and the release of various subsequent console-game bundles.
According to Ampere’s analysis, detailed in a recent Financial Times article, PS5 sales increased by around 65% to garner 22.5 million units sold this year, while greatly surpassing the sales of Xbox Series X and S, which decreased by roughly 15%, achieving the sale of 7.6 million units this year.
For the current fiscal year, SIE is planning on achieving a target of 25 million units sold by March 31, 2024. If the company does succeed in reaching this ambitious goal, it will establish a new record for the most consoles sold by the company in a single fiscal year. With two major PS5 exclusive titles on their way, i.e. The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered in January and Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth in February, it seems SIE might as well hit the aforementioned annual target.
