The PS5 Is Now Selling Slower Than The PS4

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The PS5 has been one of the most in-demand consoles ever since it launched in November 2020, so much so in fact that Sony has struggled to meet this strong demand. However, the latest figures show that PS5 sales have reached a total of 17.3 million units as of December 31, 2021.

For the important third quarter of the 2021 fiscal year, which runs through the holiday period, Sony sold 3.9 million PS5 consoles, which is a slight improvement on the previous quarter's figure of 3.3 million. However, this is lower than the 4.5 million PS5s Sony shifted for the same Q3 period of the previous financial year.

The PS5 has been the fastest-selling PlayStation of all time, with it reaching 10 million units sold faster than any previous Sony console, which shows the significance of the demand, but this pace is now slowing. The latest figures show that the PS5 is now falling behind its predecessor, with the PS4 having reached 20.2 million units sold by the same timeframe.

Sony has struggled to meet consumer demand, with many PlayStation fans joking about the elusive or "mythical" PS5, with available stock often snapped up rapidly. Like Nintendo and Microsoft, Sony has faced components shortages and supplies have been constrained owing to supply chain issues, mostly due to the ongoing shortage in computer chips, and has blamed this for the fall in sales compared to the same time period last year.

These issues look likely to continue and Sony has acknowledged this by revising its overall forecast, lowering PS5 shipments to an expected 11.5 million units for the fiscal year, down from the previous forecast of 14.8 million. Sony has said it is building inventory and suggested that supply would improve later in 2022.

Meanwhile, the PS4 managed to shift 200,000 units in Q3 2021 which means its lifetime sales have now reached 116.8 million, while digital sales of both PS4 and PS5 games saw an uplift and the PS Store reported its second-biggest quarterly revenues ever.