Three years after its initial release, Sony’s PlayStation 5 console continues to be in high demand. The console has now officially passed 50 million units sold. This is impressive considering it was only earlier this year you could barely walk into a store and purchase a PS5.
50 Million Sold
Reuters reported this week that November 2023 was the best November for the PS5. Sony is currently hoping to sell 25 million consoles in the current financial year. This would set a new record for Sony, and Eric Lempel, senior VP for global marketing, sales, and business operations for Sony Interactive Entertainment said that they are confident about sales this year. “We are still pushing really hard and I think we will have a record-breaking year no matter where we end up.”
The 50 million mark places the PS5 15th on the most-sold consoles list. The PS5 sits just ahead of the SNES which sold 49.1 million units and just behind the Xbox One which sold around 58 million units. Speaking of Xbox, they seem to be having a tougher time selling their 9th-generation console. According to Financial Times reporting, PS5 sales grew to 22.5 million this year, while Xbox console sales fell to around 7.6 million units. This means PS5s outsold Xbox Series X|S consoles by a ratio of about three to one.
While speaking to the Financial Times, Lempel said the PS5 is on pace to sell more units than the highly successful PS4. The PS4 sold over 117 million consoles, putting it 5th on the most sold consoles list. It would not be the first time a Sony console has outsold its Microsoft competitor. The original Xbox only sold about 24 million units, while the PS2 sold 155 million, making it the best-selling console in gaming history. As mentioned earlier, the PS4 sold 117.2 million to Xbox One’s 58 million units. Even the PS3, which many consider to have lost the 7th generation battle to the Xbox 360, barely outsold the Xbox 360 by about 3 million units.