PS5 Sales Drop by 29% as Sony Acknowledges Missed Objectives

Sony today reported its financial results for the 2023-2024 fiscal year. Despite a strong balance sheet and more PS5s sold than in 2022-2023, console sales targets have not been achieved. The Japanese company had however revised its forecasts downwards in the past.

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Figures below forecasts!

Basically, Sony wanted to sell a total of 25 million PlayStation 5s during the 2023 fiscal year (which ended in March 2024). Last February, the company corrected its ambitions due to the few consoles sold during the holiday season. New objective at the time: 21 million machines before March 2024. This objective was ultimately not honored. The Japanese giant announced today that it had reached a total of 20.8 million PS5s in fiscal year 2023. What's more, as reported by The Verge journalist Tom Warren on X, PlayStation 5 sales have fallen by 29% during the last quarter of the fiscal year, compared to the time last year. Despite everything, Sony is posting a financial year with total PS5 sales up compared to 2022-2023 (19.1 million compared to 20.8 million now).

Above all, for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, Sony forecasts 18 million consoles sold, that is to say even less than in 2022. As announced last February, the company estimates that the PS5 is now entering the “second half of its life cycle”. Obviously, in the coming months, PlayStation will announce a “PS5 Pro” which will revive interest around the brand. Hitori Totokifinancial director of the Sony group (and who has just left his place at the head of PlayStation) then explained:

Regarding the PlayStation 5, partly because it is entering the second half of the console cycle, we aim to optimize sales with more emphasis on balancing with profits, and therefore we expect a decline progressive unit sales from the next fiscal year (which starts from April 2024, editor's note).

And what about games?

Like the number of console sales, Sony shows that its network services (which notably includes the Playstation Plus) are experiencing significant growth with an increase in revenue of 17% compared to last year's figures. The Japanese firm recently announced that Helldivers II sold 12 million copies on PS5 and PC during the first 12 weeks following its launch. This shows that the formula of games services requiring a connection to the Playstation Plus service to play is paying off for the company.

Alongside the decline in console sales for the 2024 fiscal year, PlayStation has reiterated that the same will be true for game sales. This is largely due to the fact that there are no blockbuster PlayStation franchises planned for the year. As a result, an increase in sales of Playstation Plus services is planned by the firm in order to compensate for this lack of game releases for the console.