The PlayStation 5 turned three this year while hitting a huge sales milestone with 50 million consoles sold, and reports say it outsold the Xbox “3-to-1” in 2023.
To say the PlayStation 5 has had a turbulent life three years into this console generation would be kind. Since its release in November 2020, the PS5 has faced countless distribution issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and this month, the console has broken the 50 million units sold milestone just five months after the SIE July 2023 report noted selling over 40 million units. It could be attributed to the new PS5 Slim launch in November along with PS5 exclusive Spider-Man 2 or the console becoming widely available for the first time since launch. Hitting that milestone only one week slower than the PS4 did, according to VGC, with the strains of the pandemic is an achievement.
Reuters reports that not only has the PlayStation 5 had its best Black Friday ever, but the PlayStation 5 outsold the Xbox Series of consoles 3-to-1 in the year 2023. Senior Vice President for Global Marketing, Sales and Business Operations at Sony Interactive Entertainment, Eric Lempel, says, “Given the momentum we’ve had in November and a lot of what we’re seeing in December, just in general, we’re feeling very good about sales overall,” and their goal is to ship 25 million units this fiscal year.
The data is provided by Ampere Analysis and the Financial Times, and according to the data, PlayStation 5 sales grew by nearly 65% in 2023, whereas Xbox sales fell nearly 15%. On the Nintendo side of things, the company recently reported the Nintendo Switch has sold 132 million units, but sales for 2023 were down by 18%. Ampere’s Head of Games Research, Piers Harding-Rolls, said, “There was a lot of pent-up demand, so when the supply came in, [the PlayStation 5] broke all records in the first quarter of this year,” regarding the upswing in sales for PS5 in 2023.
While sales are looking up for Sony and the PlayStation 5, it remains to be seen whether they can hit their goal of 25 million units sold this fiscal year. The recently leaked PS5 Pro could have helped with that, but leaks suggest the console will launch outside of this fiscal year.
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