PS5 vs PS4 Sales Comparison in the US - May 2026 - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 July 2026 / 4,261 Views
The VGChartz sales comparison series of articles are updated monthly and each one focuses on a different sales comparison using our estimated video game hardware figures. The charts include comparisons between the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch, as well as with older platforms. There are articles based on our worldwide estimates, as well as the US, Europe, and Japan.
This monthly series compares the aligned US sales of the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4.
The PlayStation 5 launched in November 2020, while the PlayStation 4 launched in November 2013. This does mean the holiday periods for the two consoles do lineup.
PS5 Vs. PS4 US:
Gap change in latest month: 52,104 - PS4
Gap change over last 12 months: 998,605 - PS4
Total Lead: 397,754 - PS5
PlayStation 5 Total Sales: 29,656,033
PlayStation 4 Total Sales: 29,258,279
May 2026 is the 67th month the PlayStation 5 has been available for. In the latest month, the gap grew in favor of the PlayStation 4 when compared to the aligned launch of the PlayStation 5 by 52,104 units.
In the last 12 months, the PS4 has outsold the PS5 by 1.00 million units. The PS5 is currently ahead of the PS4 by 0.40 million units.
The PS5 has sold 29.66 million units in 67 months, while the PS4 sold 29.26 million units. Month 67 for the PS5 is May 2026 and for the PS4 is May 2019.
The PS4 crossed 30 million in month 71, 32 million in month 74, and 34 million in month 86. The PS4 sold 34.93 million units lifetime in the US. The PS5 is 5.27 million units behind lifetime PS4 sales in the US.
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 follow the author on Bluesky.
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Sony playstation 5 and upcoming 6 can crash and burn ,dont give a shit anymore f um
They couldn't care less if you support/buy it or not. They already have a monopoly on the market.
not a monopoly but they sure did smoke the Xbox! with the price increase i have PS4 over PS5.
not a monopoly because of Switch 2? If they felt threatened by Switch 2 they wouldn't have announced cancelling of physical games. They know people won't abandon PS5/6 for Switch 2
because of the xseries! do you know the definition of a monopoly? i wonder what the price of a PlayStation would be if they had a monopoly?
The XSeries is currently selling worse than the Wii U. that's like saying MS windows doesn't have a monopoly because of Linux or Apple OS. They still have a monopoly
sony ps5 sales 93 million
xseries sales 35 million
thats a monopoly? and then we have nintendo!
MS is confirmed to not be launching another mass market console so they are already confirmed to be virtually exiting console market. It doesn't matter if they have 35 million sold right now if there's not going to be another one. That means less and less third party support and that means people slowly migrating over to other platforms. Switch 2 I don't think is even a direct competitor. Why would Sony care about a platform not getting GTA6 this year? i know I wouldn't if I was them
the switch 2 is in direct competition, final fantasy 7 revelation will release on all systems. resident evil 9 released at same time, that is direct competition.
The big money is in USA and Europe but sure you can give Nintendo the W in Japan. Won't argue that
Nintendo kicks ass in Japan
Nintendo themselves don´t view Sony or MS as competition. Google ¨Nintendo blue ocean strategy¨. If they viewed them as competition, then surely it would appear in their financial reports somewhere.
You be surprised how hard the ps6 is gonne flop.
Everyone said the same thing about Windows 11. It doesn't matter if there's backlash when there's a monopoly over the market
What do you mean with Sony has a monopoly? If you mean exclusive games, you can also say that Nintendo has a monopoly.
Well, all publishers target the PS5 as their primary development platform. If that ever changes to Switch 2, I will say Switch 2 has a monopoly.
I don't believe PlayStation 5 has a monopoly, and I definitely don't believe that PS6 is in a position to not fail. PS2 sold 160 million compared to GameCube at 22 million and Xbox at 24 million - that is a MUCH bigger gap than PS5's 92 million to Xbox Series' 35 million. And guess what? Sony fell completely on their face in the Xbox 360 vs PS3 generation, so much that it took the entire generation for Sony to catch up and just barely overtake Xbox 360 in the end by a couple million (so, really, a tie).
Xbox can absolutely come back and beat PS6, at least in the near term, for the next-gen. And as a PlayStation gamer, I hope that it happens! Competition can only make Sony a better company, one with better decisions for gamers rather than shareholders.
I think this is way too optimistic sorry. MS doesn't even have the desire to compete with Sony anymore. They're desperately scrambling to just have a profitable Xbox division, let alone compete with Sony. Look what trying to compete with Sony did to the Xbox division, it screwed it royally. We've got to move on from this competition mindset that applied in the past, It's different times now.
MS extended Win 10 until 2027 due to the considerable Win 11 backlash.
MS recently announced another extension until 2028 for the same reason.
Now about 75% of users have transitioned to Win 11 already, but that 25% aren't budging until there's good reason to, or unless they're finally forced to.
Though force can cause them to go elsewhere because while MS is mostly a monopoly, there still is competition from Apple and Linux.
Same applies to SNY. They still have to be a bit careful about how they handle PS6.
Yes but people sticking with windows 10 isn't going to have MS worried though is it. It's a great position to be in where you're biggest threat is your own older products. Same will happen with Sony and PS6. PS5 Will be it's biggest hurdle to reach sales milestones but they won't have any problems with that
Windows that are on what hundreds of millions pc against a gaming console...yea lol
For now that seems the case, but we don't know enough about what Nin will be doing with SW2 throughout this gen or what exactly MS has planned for next gen.
PS6 keeps looking more and more like PS3 which means it would be that much easier to take market share from SNY towards the end of this gen and into next gen.
i do not see myself buying a PS6, i have had every sony console and looks like the PS5 is my last!
