Sony’s latest financial results are in, and the PS5 is doing better than anyone expected. Despite a woeful lack of new games exclusive to the PlayStation console, people won’t stop buying the device, with another 2.5 million units bought between April and June 2025. That’s slightly better than it sold during the same period last year, and brings the lifetime total to 80.3 million. Recent rumors have suggested that the Xbox Series may have sold only 30 million in the same time. Awks.
Sony had some other big numbers to boast about. The PlayStation Network currently has 123 million “active users,” up seven million since the same time last year. Meanwhile, 65.9 million PS4 and PS5 games were sold in April to June’s Q1 up 12 million on 2024, although it’s notable that only 6.9 million of those were first party titles. Bear in mind that Nintendo sold six million copies of Mario Kart World alone in a single month, for a brand new console with no previously established user base, and you can see how Sony’s first party numbers look pretty shaky right now. Although given the success of PS Plus and the hefty cut taken for every software sale, it doesn’t seem like people will be too worried.
This all means the PS5 is performing pretty much exactly as well as the PS4 and PS3 before it, all of which should make Sony delighted. Those machines sold during times of financial recovery, while the PlayStation 5 launched in the midst of global catastrophe. Covid was at its peak, while supply chain issues and chip shortages meant the machines couldn’t fill shelves until months after the official launch.
Sony of course has multiple revenue sources, across music, movies and technology, with $17.8 billion in sales across all its divisions in Q1, again, slightly up on last year, movies alone reporting $2.3 billion. But gaming was responsible for over $6.3 billion, making the sector worth almost triple that of movies to the Japanese corporation. Imagine if the mainstream press noticed.
These numbers clearly explain Microsoft’s strategy to start releasing its first-party games onto Sony’s console. A base of 80 million potential new customers is more than double its own, and taking advantage of this is already proving extremely successful. Of course Xbox games are going to launch day-one on PlayStation, when its tripling the possible audience.
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