Sony reports strong PS5 hardware sales as it closes in on 40 million units sold

Sony says it shipped 6.3 million PlayStation 5 consoles in the three months ending March 31st 2022, bringing total sales of the console to 38.4 million, the company reported in its latest earnings release. That’s more than triple what the company shipped in the same quarter the previous year (2 million), and means the Japanese electronics giant shipped 19.1 million PS5 during fiscal 2022, beating its earlier forecast of 18 million. 

On the software side things were more mixed, Bloomberg notes. Revenue from game software was up overall, but units shipped fell from 70.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2021 to 68 million in the same quarter of 2022. PlayStation Network monthly active users were up slightly from 106 million to 108 million, but the number of PlayStation Plus subscribers were flat at 47.4 million.

This disparity partly reflects the lack of major first-party games releases in the quarter. But there are also concerns that the PS5’s earlier hardware supply issues are having a knock on effect on software sales and subscriptions, which are important if the company wants to build a “virtuous cycle” of mutually reinforcing console and game sales.

CNBC notes that the company’s financials were strong overall, reporting an operating profit of a record 1.21 trillion yen (around $8.9 billion) for the year. Revenue in the quarter rose 35 percent to 3.06 trillion yen (around $22.5 billion). Sony hasn’t broken out sales of its PlayStation VR2 headset, which launched during the quarter.

Bloomberg calls Sony’s profit forecast for the current fiscal year “conservative,” noting that it may be hedging against a drop in consumer spending and expectations that it will sell fewer games from its in-house PlayStation Studios this year. The company expects operating profit to come in at 1.17 trillion yen (around $8.6 billion), which would represent a roughly 3 percent drop year-over-year.