While I personally spent most of my gaming time during this break playing games on the ol’ Xbox One – I had quite a bit of Rise of the Tomb Raider shenanigans to mop up – it seems it’s the PlayStation 4 that’s had the biggest holiday success. That’s something that should come as no surprise to anybody who’s been paying attention.
According to the house of PlayStation, the unit has sold in the region of 5.7 million units during the silly season. That brings the global tally of PlayStation 4s sold through (yes, that means to customers!) to a staggering 35.9 million units globally as of January 3, 2016.
That’s a frightful number of consoles, edging ever closer to the lifetime sales that its predecessor, the PlayStation 3 managed. In addition to that, says Sony, they sold more than 35 million software units too. That’s despite last year not being the best year overall for games on the system – though that’s something that looks set to change in 2016.
I know it’s something we keep on saying, but the PlayStation 4 is still performing better than the PlayStation 2, which is a phenomenon I didn’t think I’d see happen ever again. Time, of course, will tell as to whether or not it really ends up dethroning that consoles over the entirety of its run.
“We are absolutely delighted that so many customers have selected PS4 as the best place to play throughout this holiday season and that the PS4 community is growing more than ever,” said Andrew House, president and Global CEO in a press release.
“We remain steadfast in our commitment to deliver innovative entertainment experiences, and look forward to bringing an unprecedented games portfolio from third party developers and publishers and SCE Worldwide Studios, including Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, New Hot Shots Golf and The Last Guardian, this coming year.”
Sony’s also trumpeted about a 60% increase in PlayStation Plus subscriptions, though I have to believe that’s largely because they’re now necessary for multiplayer, rather than the other benefits the subscription provides. The games that have been offered on the service haven’t been particularly exciting of late, have they?
Did any of you pick up a console for the holidays? If so, play anything nice on them?
Last Updated: January 6, 2016
Umar
January 6, 2016 at 08:05
The holiday season is what, a month and a half, and they sold almost 6 million units?
http://memecrunch.com/meme/36PDW/daam/image.png?w=500&c=1
Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)
January 6, 2016 at 11:21
The thirst is real!
Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)
January 6, 2016 at 12:54
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/724eb8fd1f85d6bbfce4c6f78beed5292952a366b537c0b0e655d54a792de7c0.gif
Francois Knoetze
January 6, 2016 at 08:08
Holy hells that is a lot! well their sales are about to go up one more. My Launch model saw its arse on new years day 🙁 Hopefully insurance pays out…
Alien Emperor Trevor
January 6, 2016 at 08:12
What happened to it?
Francois Knoetze
January 6, 2016 at 08:25
Well I stay by the beach and humidity is high: Ps4 starts up, double beeps, switches off, restarts, checks hd, home menu. this went on in a loop and eventually wiped my data. I have done almost every remedy in the book and the thing is still going at it. so I have sent it this morning to a company that will give my insurance a report and will go from there
Alien Emperor Trevor
January 6, 2016 at 08:27
I feel your pain. My old PC died on NY eve thanks to the heat.
Francois Knoetze
January 6, 2016 at 08:45
sniff…sucks so much…with me its always the launch models that die. But hey. Still got my Bone but was busy with MGSV and witcher 3:(
Alien Emperor Trevor
January 6, 2016 at 08:56
Mine was 5 years old. Had a good run, but those constant high ambients were just too much for it in the end. Worst was sitting without a gaming machine for the weekend heh. Luckily the bulk of my new PC is getting delivered today – yay!
Francois Knoetze
January 6, 2016 at 13:12
ps4 was dropped off today. heard its a bit of a hell pit…it really feels like I sent my baby to the slaughter. call them to find out if everything is in order. Woman says: we never received it…”um yes you did, my people dropped it off” Oh yes it is here…” what is the time frame I can look at?” 5 to 10 working days.. dear heavens woman I want a damage report not a nuclear disarmament
Alien Emperor Trevor
January 6, 2016 at 08:11
TLG is coming this year? Suuuuuuuuuure….
Umar
January 6, 2016 at 08:15
yes, it’s coming out. !10% sure.
Hammersteyn
January 6, 2016 at 08:15
10% is not a lot :/
Umar
January 6, 2016 at 08:17
LOL 110% L33T skills are next level
Hammersteyn
January 6, 2016 at 08:18
hehe
Alien Emperor Trevor
January 6, 2016 at 08:21
I thought you were saying “not 10%” sure. :/
Umar
January 6, 2016 at 08:22
lol ooooooh, some programming humor 😀
Hammersteyn
January 6, 2016 at 08:38
heh I still use
Hammersteyn
January 6, 2016 at 08:16
They should rename PS+ to PSM. The M stands for mandatory
Francois Knoetze
January 6, 2016 at 08:27
with all the crappy ps plus lineups for ps4 it should be called BS+
Hammersteyn
January 6, 2016 at 08:47
They aren’t all crappy tbh. Rocket League, Kings Quest, Gauntlet, Mercenary Kings are but a couple of gems we got last year. Thing is with PS3 we got AAA games because PS+ wasn’t mandatory. But now that it is we haven’t seen a single AAA game.
Marc O Polo
January 6, 2016 at 10:13
Last AAA was Injustice, last Dec I think!
Hammersteyn
January 6, 2016 at 10:46
O_o so more than a year then
legacy
January 6, 2016 at 17:51
It’s just a bonus if people don’t like games they offering buy the ones you do like or get a xbox, it’s to many free and affordable games on ps4 to be complaining
Marc O Polo
January 10, 2016 at 11:25
Infamous first light was sometime during the year… But since it’s such a short game don’t really think its AAA
Hammersteyn
January 11, 2016 at 07:53
Yeah, that was just an expansion.
Alucard
January 6, 2016 at 15:28
At least you can do everything except online gaming on it. Can’t go on Netflix without XBOX Live
Hammersteyn
January 7, 2016 at 07:49
That’s some real bullshit right there
justlikemo
January 6, 2016 at 08:48
playstaystions always kiecked xbox but over the years, and and left no remains.
schitsophrenic-toothbrush
January 6, 2016 at 09:11
Busy jamming Fallout 4 on my PS4, just boned a robot/synth, was good times. My PS+ sub expired in December, I have not renewed it yet, unfortunately the games on PS+ have been slightly underwhelming of late.
iusedtobe(a)regular
January 6, 2016 at 09:27
Those are some impressive numbers and with the heavy hitters still to come, 2016 is shaping up to be an exceptional year for the Playstation.
Cammybuu
January 6, 2016 at 10:38
I don’t need to buy one to be part of this statistic, as i got an Anniversary Edition. 1 in 12300 sounds better than 1 in 36 million.
oVg
January 6, 2016 at 10:57
PSN felt the brunt of those extra consoles. I managed to get into PSN 3 times the last 2 weeks. It was also down all day yesterday and SONY want to give us free goodies for their rubbish service.
Look at these poor chumps who could not play Need for Speed single player lol
http://downdetector.co.za/status/playstation-network
legacy
January 6, 2016 at 17:41
That’s funny cause me and a lot of other people didn’t have no problems getting online for awhile, Monday was the only day it was down, what you should be worry about is when ms next exclusive is coming, it’s starting to look real dry for this year
oVg
January 7, 2016 at 08:29
I dont know what it is. It either works super fast or does not work at all. Even logging in on the Playstation web page is intermittent at best. Cant be the DNS as Im running youtube videos at 1080p with no pausing, and game updates are running fine.
Tiaan Pat
January 6, 2016 at 11:09
I am looking at getting a PS4 sometime this year and just wanted to know if they will bring out ‘updated’ consoles this year? Meaning consoles that they have upgraded the hardware etc?
Geoffrey Tim
January 6, 2016 at 11:19
It’s likely that we’ll see a newer console using updated hardware, but only with respects to efficiency in heat and power usage. It won’t be a better, stronger PS4.
Tiaan Pat
January 6, 2016 at 11:31
So no update to the HDD then? Do you know by when this will be? I am thinking only mid year to end of the year.
Alien Emperor Trevor
January 6, 2016 at 13:25
If they could do it in the 70’s, why not now?
legacy
January 7, 2016 at 15:50
Sony is thinking about doing it but it could divide the fan base, and piss off the people that can’t upgrade their system. But they already said that they can
Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)
January 6, 2016 at 11:21
The King rules supreme!
Lardus-For the Emperor!
January 7, 2016 at 12:15
Was thinking of getting one, but all the games I like come on PC as well, or are PC exclusives…I can just use a controller if I really want to on PC. PS4 would be my console of choice right now, but that plus a PC upgrade…I only have moneyz for one so might have to skip 🙁