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PlayStation 5 reaches 10 million sold milestone in record time

by Mark Tyson on 29 July 2021, 11:11

Tags: Sony (NYSE:SNE)

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The PlayStation 5 is Sony Interactive Entertainment's fastest selling console in its history. The console has racked up 10 million units sold, even faster than the PS4 managed to do so. Moreover, to hit this level of achievement producers/sellers/buyers have had to face speed bumps like semiconductor shortages, pandemic supply line issues, and the plague of retail scalpers. Even now, securing a PS5/PS5 slim requires some planning, you can't just turn up at a store and pick your favourite console bundle.

"We are thrilled to announce that as of July 18th, 2021, we have sold more than 10 million PlayStation 5 consoles globally," wrote Veronica Rogers, SVP, Global Sales and Business Operations at SIE, on the firm's news blog. "Pushing through supply challenges and a global pandemic, we're proud to have delivered a transformational gaming experience that is captivating players around the world." Rogers went on to pour gratitude over all workers helping PlayStation products flow, and console fans for buying up the hardware so quickly.

So, how does the PS5 rollout compare to previous PlayStations, and to the take-up of the current rival – Microsoft's Xbox Series X/S? Well, SIE says it moved past the 10 million PS5 sales on 18th July, which is just 8 months after initial availability. Figures show that the PS4 only reached past this milestone in month 9 – quite close, but it has been beaten. SIE intends to continue to beat PS4 records, with hopes to break through 15 million current gen consoles sold by the end of its current fiscal year. We shall see if that happens, when financials are released next April.

Microsoft hasn't been so upfront about its Xbox console sales. In its results on Tuesday, it claimed that the Xbox Series X/S had been its fastest selling console series to date, but we simply don't have official stats to look at and compare with Sony's. However, games industry analyst Daniel Ahmad, from Niko Partners, has provided some useful Xbox sales insight. According to the stats Ahmad has access to, "the Xbox Series X/S total sell in was 6.5m as of June 30, 2021". He noted that Xbox supplies have improved in the past quarter.

In other console news, Xbox doughnuts stuffed with "gooey brownie batter" will be available starting 2nd August (until 22nd August), from Krispy Kreme UK and Ireland stores.

HEXUS Forums :: 15 Comments

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Posted by Spud1 - Thu 29 Jul 2021 11:43
Quite impressive numbers considering the shortages….and the fact it wins the award for “Ugliest major games console to ever be released”. It's simply not a desirable thing to have in my lounge.

I'll be curious how the sales numbers pan out when we get some independent numbers for both from the same source - i'd be fairly confident in the PS5 outselling the Xboxes again given how strongly brand loyalty & backwards compatibility influence console sales, but I would be equally confident that the gap is a lot closer this generation.
Posted by ilh - Thu 29 Jul 2021 12:49
I don't know if it's a result of the pandemic or if I just don't frequent the right places but other than the initial launch (which I felt was quite muted but again may be for the same reasons) and shortages stories I have seen and heard absolutely nothing of the new generation of consoles.
Posted by kompukare - Thu 29 Jul 2021 12:50
Spud1
Quite impressive numbers considering the shortages….and the fact it wins the award for “Ugliest major games console to ever be released”. It's simply not a desirable thing to have in my lounge.

I'll be curious how the sales numbers pan out when we get some independent numbers for both from the same source - i'd be fairly confident in the PS5 outselling the Xboxes again given how strongly brand loyalty & backwards compatibility influence console sales, but I would be equally confident that the gap is a lot closer this generation.

Considering the shortage, or the cause of the shortage?

XBX has a higher spec (at least in terms of the APU), but Sony really seem to have outselling them by a lot by all accounts.
Posted by Yoyoyo69 - Thu 29 Jul 2021 13:18
I'm very sceptical and curious how they have arrived at this number.

Perhaps stock is better in other countries?

Series X have had much more stock available/sold.

Whilst I wouldn't necessarily doubt a quotes number, I find it hard to believe given the lack of stock, they've managed to outsell even the Series X, let alone previous models.
Posted by Hicks12 - Thu 29 Jul 2021 13:24
Spud1
Quite impressive numbers considering the shortages….and the fact it wins the award for “Ugliest major games console to ever be released”. It's simply not a desirable thing to have in my lounge.

I'll be curious how the sales numbers pan out when we get some independent numbers for both from the same source - i'd be fairly confident in the PS5 outselling the Xboxes again given how strongly brand loyalty & backwards compatibility influence console sales, but I would be equally confident that the gap is a lot closer this generation.

There wasnt really a shortage of consoles, AMD put the wafer distribution heavily in favour of the consoles (for good reason), it was just divided between two major console launches and people wanting it now along with being stuck at home increased it but I dont think availability was actually signifdicantly worse than previous launches its just the demand was higher initially.

Anecdotally of course but a lot of people I know have switched to Xbox this time round after being rabid fans of sony for many generations, the fact Sony have very poor and limited backwards compatibilty compared to microsoft actually bringing a huge amount of their library back from previous consoles coupled with the fact game pass is amazing value along with microsoft buying bethesda (that was the final straw I think for a lot as they realised MS has decent exclusives).

It will be interesting to see the real world values but from my own bubble it seems like sony have sat on their hands for far too long instead of trying to improve their customer experience and features.

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