By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
PlayStation Consoles Have Sold Over 500 Million Units

PlayStation Consoles Have Sold Over 500 Million Units - Sales

by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 May 2023 / 13,730 Views

Sony's PlayStation home consoles have reached a new sales milestone having sold over a combined 500 million units since the original PlayStation released in Japan in December 1994.

The original PlayStation went on to sell an estimated 102.49 million units lifetime, the PlayStation 2 sold 158.70 million units, the PlayStation 3 sold 87.40 million, the PlayStation 4 has sold 117.02 million units, and the PlayStation 5 has sold 35.94 million units.

The five PlayStation home consoles have sold an estimated 501.55 million units combined, according to VGChartz estimates.

PlayStation Consoles Have Sold Over 500 Million Units

The figure does not include PlayStation handhelds. The PSP sold an estimated 80.79 million units lifetime and the PlayStation Vita sold 15.82 million units. If you were to includes the PlayStation handhelds, the total number of PlayStation consoles and handhelds sold are an estimated 598.16 million units.

The PS1 released in Japan in December 1994 and worldwide in 1995, the PS2 worldwide in 2000, the PS3 in Japan and North America in November 2006, and in Europe in March 2007, the PS4 in the west in November 2013 and in Japan in February 2014, and the PS5 worldwide in 2020.


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.


More Articles

23 Comments
moschefenty (on 02 May 2023)

It's not fair to compare the amount of Nintendo consoles against Sony, because Nintendo came generations before and always released 2 consoles per gen, this inflates the amount. So it's fairer to count Nintendo's base by generation, by generation Nintendo sold 888m of consoles during 7 gen = 126,85m per gen. Sony playstation 598m for 5 gen = 119.6m. But it is clear that this average will increase if we wait for the Ps5 and Switch to end their sales.

  • +4
loy310 (on 03 May 2023)

congrtz, since day 1 babe

  • +2
LivncA_Dis3 (on 04 May 2023)

Massive congrats to team a
Sony and Playstation,
Well deserved!

  • +1
Doctor_MG (on 01 May 2023)

Playstation: 500M across 7 consoles is about 71.42M on average.

Nintendo: About 785M across 11 consoles is about 71.36M on average.

Xbox: About 183M across 4 consoles is about 45.75M on average.

These are all pretty great numbers. Especially since consoles like the SNES and Genesis/Mega Drive are considered successful, and they only sold about 49.10M and 34.06M respectively

Edit: actually, the numbers don't include portables for playstation so the average is actually far higher

  • 0
Signalstar Doctor_MG (on 01 May 2023)

You didn't read the article clearly enough. The 500 M figure is across the 5 PS consoles. Not including handhelds. With the 2 handhelds included the figure is 598 M units.

  • +8
Doctor_MG Signalstar (on 01 May 2023)

Oops you're right!

  • +4
Comment was deleted...
Comment was deleted...
Comment was deleted...
Wman1996 Signalstar (on 01 May 2023)

598 mil/7=85.42 mil average.
Not the fairest average yet, since PS5 still has a ton of life in it.
But that's interesting because it means the PSP (the best-selling PS handheld) and the PS3 (the worst-selling PS home console that is discontinued) are pretty much right at that average.
PSP: 80.79 million units
PS3: 87.40 million units

  • 0
XtremeBG Doctor_MG (on 01 May 2023)

the number for PS is actually 100M on average. Which is great, to have 5 home consoles, each selling at least 100M. Nintendo is way behind this.

  • +4
StreaK XtremeBG (on 01 May 2023)

Yeah, PlayStation is the king of consoles, no doubt about it. It used to be nintendo back in the day but no way on average can Nintendo compare to the way Sony has - CONSISTENTLY - dominated the game console market.
Even Nintendo benefits from sales today BECAUSE of what the PS1 accomplished back in 1994. I would even champion sony as the sole reason gaming is as big as it is today. Gaming was a niche market before PS1 arrived. Microsoft even took notice and wanted to create their very own console because Bill Gates admitted he was impressed with PS1.
So yeah...PlayStation really changed gaming which made Microsoft take it to an online level to make gaming more mainstream than ever. And the viewership at the Game Awards proves just how huge this industry has become.

  • +2
moschefenty StreaK (on 02 May 2023)

It's not fair to compare the amount of Nintendo consoles against Sony, because Nintendo came generations before and always released 2 consoles per gen, this inflates the amount. So it's fairer to count Nintendo's base by generation, by generation Nintendo sold 888m of consoles during 7 gen = 126,85m per gen. Sony playstation 598m for 5 gen = 119.6m. But it is clear that this average will increase if we wait for the Ps5 and Switch to end their sales.

  • +1
StreaK moschefenty (on 02 May 2023)

Hmm, that's quite an interesting and amusing spin lol. That's a new take I haven't quite seen before.
Geez, so what? If only Sony released 2 consoles per year and had a portable at the time.
Nintendo was popular, sure, for an industry that was appealing only to the game fans. The thing is Sony's FIRST console ended up selling 100m+ compared to Nintendo's first selling 40m. Nintendo is only now growing more popular and the Wii was its first 100m seller. Sony's least selling is the PS3 which still more than doubled the NES.
Every Sony console now is almost guranteed to sell close to 100m. And it does so WITH competition like from Microsoft who has a "media" console that is on par with the PS. Nintendo is in its own little world. Imagine if there was no Xbox. It was just Sony vs Nintendo like it was Sega vs Nintendo back then. Increase PS's sales by 30% as that's the market Sony lost with the arrival of Xbox.

  • -1
Doctor_MG StreaK (on 03 May 2023)

Gonna disagree here on part of this.

First, Sony does very well in the home console market, but Nintendo dominates the portable console market. Nintendo also sells much more software than Sony (talking about as a publisher, not as a license). I don't think it's correct to declare Sony is the king given these two facts.

In addition, Sony owes Nintendo just as much as Nintendo owes Sony. The NES brought the market back on the brink of death in the US. The Gameboy also sold more units than any console ever until the PS2 came along 10 years later. Heck, Nintendo influenced Sony directly to enter the video game market because Nintendo showed them how much potential it had (similar to how MS was inspired by Sony).

  • +1
StreaK Doctor_MG (on 06 May 2023)

Alright, fair enough. Valid points, for sure. Can't really argue those. Really, not trying to downplay Nintendo's success just basically giving more credit to Sony than it seems to get around here. People here really love downplaying its success when compared to Nintendo. But after only 5 consoles and Nintendo is barely on top, which is quite telling to the popularity of the PlayStation brand especially since PS has to compete with MS. Nintendo doesn't have a counterpart to its system, really. Kinda brilliant on their part as they basically gave up on the "graphics and technology" side of things and seem to just focus on "games." Which works just fine for them.
All I was saying is that comparing Switch and PS is almost night and day compared to comparing PS and Xbox.
I would really love to see how the sales would be like if Sony had no competion. Nintendo is a pure classic gaming console. PlayStation is like a computer. I'd say it's more difficult for Sony to sell consoles and yet they're neck and neck with the switch. To me this is huge. You can buy two switch's for every PS console. I cannot stress that enough.

  • 0
moschefenty XtremeBG (on 02 May 2023)

PlayStation 7 consoles = 597m
85m/console.
Nintendo 12 consoles = 888m 74m/console.

  • +3
Doctor_MG XtremeBG (on 03 May 2023)

Nintendo is around there when talking about portables though.

4 consoles at around 429M total is 107.25M per. Or five consoles at 110.2M per for a total of 551M. Depending on whether you count Switch.

  • 0
moschefenty Doctor_MG (on 02 May 2023)

Nintendo sales:
125+154+102+77+14+23+33+65+50+119+82+44 = 888m consoles
Switch, DS, Wii, 3ds, WiiU, GC, N64, NES, SNES, gb, GBA, g&w.
74m/console.

  • +1
Kakadu18 moschefenty (on 02 May 2023)

In shipments:
Switch: 122.55mil
3DS: 75.94mil
Wii U: 13.56mil
DS: 154.02mil
Wii: 101.63mil
GBA: 81.51mil
GC: 21.74mil
N64: 32.93mil
GB: 118.69mil
SNES: 49.1mil
NES: 61.91mil
G&W: 43.4mil
Color TV-Game: 3mil
NES Classic+SNES Classic combined: 13.53mil

  • +1
Doctor_MG Kakadu18 (on 03 May 2023)

The game and watch series sold 43.4M???

Wow, color me impressed. Nintendo has been the king of portable console sales since it's inception.

Also, you forgot to add Virtual Boy at around 790k lol

  • 0
loy310 Doctor_MG (on 03 May 2023)

If you gonna count all 7 consoles for PS then they would be approaching 650 million.

  • 0
Doctor_MG loy310 (on 03 May 2023)

650M? That doesn't sound correct. PSP and PS Vita only add 90-100M or so.

  • +1