PS5 Ships 38.4 Million Units as of March 2023, Sets Video Game Record for March Quarter - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 28 April 2023 / 7,286 Views
Sony Interactive Entertainment in its financial results announced it has shipped 38.4 million PlayStation 5 consoles as of March 31, 2023.
With 38.4 million PlayStation 5 consoles shipped through the end of March that means 6.3 million units were shipped from January to March. This is up 4.3 million from the same quarter in 2022. This is also a record for any video game console for the January to March quarter.
Sony was able beat its forecast of 19 million PS5 consoles shipped for the 2022 fiscal year by shipping 19.1 million units.
For reference, the PlayStation 4 had shipped 2.4 million units in the same quarter for a lifetime total of 40.2 million units shipped as of March 31, 2016. This puts the PS5 behind shipped PS4 units by 1.8 million units.
There were a total of 68.0 million games sold on the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 for the quarter. This is down 2.5 million from 70.5 million during the same period a year earlier. Digital sales accounted for 70 percent of software sales.
There were 9.5 million first-party games sold across the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4. This is down 5.0 million from 14.5 million first-party games sold a year ago.
The number of PlayStation Plus subscribers is at 47.4 million, which is the same as a year ago. There were 108 million monthly active users, an increase of 2 million from 106 million a year ago.
Sony's Game & Network Services Segment for the quarter ending March 31, 2023, reported revenue increased 407.95 billion yen ($3.02 billion) year-over-year to 1,073.20 billion yen ($7.94 billion), while operating income decreased 48.39 billion yen ($0.36 billion) to 38.86 billion yen ($0.29 billion).
Sony's forecast for the Game & Network Services Segment for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024 are expected to increase year-on-year due to an increase in sales of hardware and peripheral devices, which will partially be offset by foreign exchange rates.
Sony has forecasted it will ship 25 million PS5 consoles during the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024. This would be a new record for PlayStation consoles. If Sony is able to hit its forecast it would bring PS5 shipment figures to 63.4 million units at the end of March 2024. This would be 3.2 million above the 60.2 million PS4s shipped after the same amount of time.
"Sales are expected to increase year-on-year mainly due to an expected increase in sales of hardware and peripheral devices, partially offset primarily by the impact of foreign exchange rates," reads the report from Sony.
"Operating income and Adjusted OIBDA are expected to increase year-on-year mainly due to an expected improvement in hardware profitability and the positive impact of foreign exchange rates reflecting the high ratio of U.S. dollar denominated costs, in addition to the impact of the above-mentioned expected increase in sales of peripheral devices. These increases are expected to be partially offset primarily by an expected increase in costs and the impact of an expected decrease in sales of first-party titles."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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insanely the biggest first quarter of the year for any console in history. a record being broken
Holy cow
I want to add the gap between shipped and sold was 2.1 million at the end of December, according to Sony. A gap being a bit bigger now wouldn't be a surprise with Sony shipping 2 million or more PS5s per month, it taking several weeks to ship the consoles around the world, the PS5 now being available at many retailers, and even some discounts on the God of War bundle this month.
Thanks! I had to read a second time to realize that 6.3 million were shipped, not sold. PS5 sold 5.42M in the first quarter, while Switch sold 4.96M in 2020. Anyway, PS5 outsold Switch's best first quarter. I wasn't sure, because Switch got such an insane boost in March back then.
No problem. I know a lot of people get confused or don't know Sony's figures are shipped, unless otherwise stated.
You're right but at least they release numbers and SONY knows almost every console released will be sold anyways, on the other hand MS never released any numbers, so we have to guess. :(
Well deserved. PS5 is probably my favorite console ever. Glad that they get systems out of their factories so more people can enjoy them.
Love to see records being broken. If they hit their 25mil forecast it'll be the biggest fiscal year for a Playstation console.
Holy daamnnn
A lot of people on here last year said Sony wouldn't even get close to the original 18M target let alone the revised 19M one and they even beat that expectation. Congrats to Sony on an incredible year and looking forward to this next record setting one for them.
In fairness to the skeptics about the 18 M target (and to put into perspective just how massive 6.3 million units in a Q1 is) From what I could find, the PS4 never exceeded 3 million units in a January-March quarter.
In order to reach the target of 18 million they still would've had to sell 5.2 million units, which is still 1.7 times the best January - March quarter the PS4 had
I’m truly astonished by the staggering numbers reported!
Ps5 should've been 50-60 mil by now,
But at least it's still making traction even after covid
The fact that a $600-$700 console can sell like this is a testament to Sony's PlayStation brand power. Can you imagine if these consoles were priced like Nintendo's?
Unreal and very pleased to see the PS5 performing so well. The console is magnificent with a spectacular UI.
"Sony has forecasted it will ship 25 million PS5 consoles during the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024. This would be a new record for PlayStation consoles." Wouldn't this be a new record for ANY console, beating the Switch's pandemic year? Someone please correct me if wrong, but I have something like ~24 million in my head for the Switch in April 2020 thru Mar 2021 fiscal year.
Switch's highest FY was 28.83m for the year ending Mar 2021. The DS record is 31.18m which I'm assuming is the highest of any console ever. The best Wii managed was 25.95m
Shoot, I was way off on the Switch numbers. It really went gangbusters that year haha. And man, DS at 31.18 million - I gotta assume the same, that has to be the overall record. I suppose PS5 has a small shot at beating that Wii number at just under 26 million, but no chance it could dethrone the Switch or DS best single years.
Yes China is reporting that they have discovered the cause of the covid outbreak and that it is what many have suspected a man made virus, but the twist is it is the worlds first computer virus that can infect people and was developed by Dr Mario during Dr Mario world mobile and either escaped or was transmitted via the app leading to an upsurge in Switch sales.
Meh, can't really compare a portable console that costs $150 that multiple people in a household can easily own to a home entertainment console that costs $600-$700 where on average 1 is bought per household (perhaps 2.)
What's the biggest grossing console in a single year, now that would be a more interesting conversation.
25 million multiplied by $600 would outgross 31 million at $150, quite substantially.
Ha, but it's still $500.
Well, let's do the math here, shall we? We'll compare DS to the PS2's inflated price point. $240 DS vs $527 PS2 in 2023 prices.
DS: 154 million sold (as of 2016)
PS2: 155 million sold (as of 2012)
(this is great comparison because both sold practically equal numbers.)
This just gives a base idea as inflated numbers vary from country to country but the numbers would still hold true, just not accurate numbers.
154mX$240 = $36.9B
155mX$527 = $81.6B
PS2 more than doubled the gross, and obviously that makes sense. Both consoles came down in price point through the years, but no doubt about it any way you look at it the PS2 killed the DS in gross.
Same now goes for PS5 vs Switch. We're talking $200 price point differences. Which is huge, as for every Switch sold you could buy TWO PS5's and then some.....and clearly, Switch has an even cheaper handheld model that they include in Switch's overall sales.
