Despite its record-breaking launch in November 2020, PS5 sales figures are now behind PS4 due to Sony’s inability to meet high demand. PS5 broke home console sales records at launch in multiple territories, including the United States, Japan, and the UK. By the end of March 2021, the system had moved 7.8 million units worldwide; in comparison, PS4 sold 7.6 million units during the same period in its lifecycle.
For a time, Sony believed it could maintain the impressive sales momentum, even after taking the global semiconductor shortages into consideration. The Japanese tech giant divulged as much during its quarterly financial report in August 2021, with CFO Hiroki Totoki telling listeners of the earnings webcast that Sony managed to secure enough chips to achieve its production targets for the year. These lofty expectations came tumbling down in October when PS5 sales began falling short of PS4. Since several semiconductor manufacturers, including the likes of Intel and Toshiba, expect the parts shortage to persist well into 2022, it’s safe to say that sales of the newer consoles will continue to frustrate the pent-up demand.
According to Niko Partners Senior Analyst Daniel Ahmad, Sony’s Q3 earnings report for fiscal year 2021 reveals that PS5 sales had topped 17.3 million as of December 31, 2021. It’s an impressive feat no doubt but doesn’t quite reach the heights of PS4, which managed to move 18.5 million units during a similar time period at the start of last generation (via TechRadar). Ahmad added that Sony’s initial hardware sales projections had PS5 shipping 22.6 million consoles by March 31 of this year. Unsurprisingly, ongoing supply constraints have forced the platform holder to adjust its previous predictions – Sony now expects the successful PlayStation 5 console to achieve 19.3 million units sold by March 31, 2022.
The PS5 has remained in scarce supply since launch, impacting Sony’s bottomline in one way or another. While the hardware manufacturer seems hopeful that the tide will eventually turn in its favor, there exists no clear indication of when that will happen. The global chip shortage has yet to subside after all, and it does not appear as though an end is in sight.
Despite PS5 supply constraints, PlayStation faithful on PS4 still have plenty of major first-party experiences to look forward to this year. The cross-gen release of Horizon Forbidden West counts as but one upcoming high point for the brand. After the Horizon sequel launches on February 18, racing sim fans will be one step closer to the rollout of the long-awaited Gran Turismo 7, which will similarly hit both PS4 and PS5 in early March. God of War: Ragnarök apparently remains on track for a 2022 launch as well, though Sony and developer Santa Monica Studio have yet to share a specific due date.
UPDATE: 04/02/2021: This article has been updated with official Sony figures from 2015, which detail PS4 sales as being 18.5 million as of January 2015 (via TechRadar), and not the 20.2 million originally cited in this article.
