The PlayStation 5 just set a new quarterly sales record, meaning it has now sold over 32 million units to-date.
According to Sony’s fiscal report for the quarter ended December 31, 2022, the console sold 7.1 million units throughout Q3 FY22. That’s a new three-month sales record for the console, which Sony claims will be easier to find now its supply issues have been resolved.
Demand for PlayStation 5 hardware drove sales and operating income within the company’s Game & Network Services (G&NS) segment, with sales increasing by 53 percent year-on-year to 433.3 billion yen ($3.36 billion) and operating income rising by 25 percent to 23.4 billion yen ($181.5 million) over the same period.
Sony attributed that upswing to the performance of PlayStation 5 hardware and software, as well as the impact of foreign exchange rates. The company said it was negatively impacted by an increase in costs and the recording of expenses associated with acquisitions, including the $3.6 billion purchase of Bungie, but those didn’t prevent a year-over-year surge within the G&NS division.
Digging deeper, the company recorded a year-on-year decrease in the number of PlayStation Plus subscribers, which fell to 46.4 million in Q3 FY22 from 48 million in Q3 FY21. Despite that drop, the number of monthly active PlayStation Network users actually increased year-on-year, rising to 112 million in Q3 FY22 from 111 million in Q3 FY21.
Full game software sales across the entire PlayStation ecosystem were down year-on-year, falling to 86.5 million units in Q3 FY22 from 92.7 million units in Q3 FY21. PlayStation 5 software sales, however, rose significantly year-over-year, rising to 7.1 million in Q3 FY22 from 3.9 million units in Q3 FY21–no doubt helped by the bumper performance of PlayStation 5 hardware.
The sales of first-party titles also increased year-on-year to 20.8 million units, up from 11.3 million units in Q3 FY21.
Looking ahead, Sony’s sales forecast for its G&NS segment remains unchanged, and the company still expects to achieve sales of 15 billion yen when the fiscal year ends on March 31, 2022.
