Sony sold 4.5 million PS5s in less than two months, not too shabby

Last year’s launch of the PS5 was a perfect example of what happens when constrained supply meets high demand. Between rabid fans and unscrupulous scalpers, you couldn’t find a single next-gen console in stock. So how well did the PS5 sell then once all the buying dust had settled? Sony published the earning results for Q3 FY2020 this morning, and as you’d expect, the answer is very.

The manufacturer announced that 4.5 million PS5 consoles have been sold since November 13, or in just under two months to be exact and further tying into Sony’s claims that the PS5 launch was its biggest console launch ever. Interestingly, Sony also revealed that each PS5 was sold at a loss, the first such instance since the days of the original PS3 launch.

This resulted in PS5 manufacturing costs hitting the company with an operating income loss, but it bounced back thanks to strong software sales. PlayStation Plus members increased by 1.5 million users in the last quarter to 47.4 million, with SOny saying that 87% of PS5 owners are Plus members. Not too shabby, and likely helped by the addition of the PS Plus collection.

There’s no indication if both models of the PS5, one with a disc drive and one without, were sold at a loss but Sony claims that the current price on these devices was made so that they would remain strategic against its strongest competition, the Bandai WonderSwan Xbox Series X/S. With that milestone behind it, Sony’s plan is to shift another 3 million units by the end of the current financial quarter, which would put it on par with PS4 shipments over the same period in 2013-2014.

As for the PS4? The end is definitely near, as only 1.4 million of those consoles were sold during last year’s quarter. The time is drawing night, for us to pour a shorty out for the last generation’s great layer cake console.

Last Updated: February 3, 2021